Bourbon Tunnels and Retrieving Lost Treasures

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Joanna muses on the Bourbon tunnels in Pompeii and Herculaneum

Pompeii, Casa dell'Efebo, Bourbon TunnelWhat is a Bourbon Tunnel, I hear you ask?

This image shows what is believed to be a Bourbon Tunnel in a decorated wall in the Casa dell’Efebo (House of the Ephebus) in Pompeii. But there’s more to that hole than you might think.

We need to go back to the early 18th century when monks in Resina, the town that had grown up over Herculaneum, were sinking a new well. By chance, they lighted on the upper tier of the theatre which had been adorned with beautiful statues. At the time, Naples was ruled by the Austrian Hapsburgs. When the wealthy Austrian Prince d’Elbeuf heard the news, he commissioned a programme of looting. His looters were to dig lateral tunnels from the well shaft and bring out what they found to decorate his new villa. Money talks, eh?

Looting was easy and fun? Not…

Looting was a dangerous occupation. Think about it. Continue reading →

Planning a novel? A Pantser’s confessions

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Pantser Sophie wrestles plot. Plot shifts ground. Pantser Sophie regroups…

As long as I’ve been a writer (i.e. since I was about seven) I have struggled with plot. It was the very first thing the agent who took me on as a wannabe novelist said to me. It was the first thing that my last (so far) editor said, too.

In the umpty-um years between, I’ve been to conferences and taken notes about plotting. There were courses I attended, writing gurus I followed, even plot templates I hammered my story into matching. Save the Cat, though inspiring in many ways, has much to answer for.

Alas, messy thinking is clearly hard-wired. Continue reading →

Joanna’s Newsletter on Travels, Ospreys and a New Head

My latest newsletter, titled “Travels, Ospreys and a New Head” will be out tomorrow,
Saturday 20th June.

If you’re interested in reading it and finding out what the “new head” might be, there’s a sign-up box at the top of the sidebar on the website.

Alternatively, click here to go straight to the sign-up page.

We won’t share your details and you can unsubscribe at any time. So why not give it a go?

Joanna x

Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum

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Joanna found lots of new material about life and death on her recent visits to Pompeii and Herculaneum

Skeletons on Herculaneum beachIf you have visited Herculaneum, you will no doubt recognise this image, of the skeletons on the beach front. These poor people were clustered together, almost certainly hoping to be rescued by sea. But it was too late. They all died where they waited. Rescue never came.

I had seen these places before, too, but it’s impossible not to be moved by them. Nearly 2,000 years ago, about 300 people waited down here, hoping against hope that the might of Rome would rescue them. But the fleet was unable to do so. The eruption was in charge and the sea state was impossible. Scientific study has shown that, mercifully, these desperate people all died instantly from “fulminant shock” from the pyroclastic surge.

New displays of life and death, but mostly death

Pompeii palaestra where young men exercised

The Palaestra in Pompeii where young men exercised (naked)

There are now excellent new displays in the museum along one side of the palaestra in Pompeii. (The higher wall in the background is the amphitheatre.) In the museum, we can see how people died — from the plaster casts of the body cavities in the ash — and, in some ways, how they lived. Continue reading →

Fantasy with Rules : what makes fantasy compelling

This week Sophie read a “fantasy with rules” book she had dropped part-read ages ago and now couldn’t put  down. It started her thinking about fantasy again and why she loves the genre.

Single round-bowled wine glass on a black reflecting surface, full of an orange cocktail, with ia slice of orange fruit and a sprig of rosemary, with ice cubes visible in the mix.

Image by StockSnap from Pixabay

On Monday this week, horribly hot and awake at three in the morning, I scanned through my Kindle library looking for something compelling to read. And, buried in downloads of three or four years ago, was an intriguing fantasy, Unraveller by Frances Hardinge. Its world, and the very particular rules to be observed by visitors, gripped me immediately.

Yet when I read it before, I seemed to have come to a halt quite early and had only the vaguest memory of the story. This time, in less than a page, I realised that this was a real find and needed, nay demanded, proper attention. I forgot how hot and bad tempered I was and went back to the beginning.

It was like a glass of something wonderful: cool, sharp and blessedly refreshing. The deeper I plunged into the story, the stranger it got. And always there was that bite of compelling strangeness that I can never resist. Continue reading →

Final book for Mills & Boon : Rescued by the Rakish Lord

Linda has news, both happy and sad…

Rescued by the Rakish Lord by Sarah Mallory her final book for Mills and Boon

This month sees the publication of my latest historical romance, and it’s a cracker!

Sadly, it is also my final book for Harlequin/Mills & Boon

As you may have heard, Harlequin / Mills & Boon are closing their Historicals line next year. I cannot deny it is a very sad moment for those of us who enjoy reading (and writing) these feel-good romances set in the past.

But enough melancholy, more about the final book!

Rescued by the Rakish Lord…

foggy exmoor, riders in mist

foggy exmoor, riders in mist picture SM

…is a sparkling Georgian romance set on the edge of Exmoor in winter. The wild uplands can seem very bleak in the darkest months of the year, as you can see from the pictures in my blog about my West Country Tour. It is a setting that lends itself to a romantic adventure involving a spirited lady, a handsome hero and a dastardly villain!

Selina Wynter is happy living in a small market town on the edge of the moors, where she looks after her ailing father and manages his household and estates. Lord Deveril is a London buck with a fearsome (and unwarranted) reputation as a rake. Sparks fly when he encounters a fiery tavern maid, and he is intrigued when he discovers her real identity – “All the breeding and accomplishments of a lady, but the temper and spirit of a tavern wench!”

If you want a taster –

Continue reading →

Revisiting the Vesuvius eruption of AD 79 : not just Pompeii

Joanna has been revisiting the Vesuvius area and seeing amazing new finds

Vesuvius from villa San Michele Capri

Vesuvius (seen from Capri) is still active and dangerous to those living nearby

I’m starting this blog with an image of Vesuvius as it now is. It dominates the whole region and is still active. It hasn’t erupted since 1944, though in theory it could do so at any time. But millions of people live on and around it, braving the danger.

Since my first visit to Pompeii and Herculaneum, nearly 10 years ago, archaeologists have discovered new finds and there are new museums on both sites. (Possibly fodder for a future blog?)

Vesuvius pre AD 79 with single peak

Peaked Vesuvius pre AD 79 with Bacchus
Public domain via Wikipedia

We know what Vesuvius did to Pompeii and Herculaneum in AD 79. But they weren’t the only places that suffered from the eruption which blew off the whole of the top of the volcano. As this pre-eruption fresco of Bacchus and the serpent Agathodaemon from Pompeii shows, the mountain probably had a single peak and the area was celebrated for its wines and grain.

For today’s blog, I wanted to show you new finds from other places, specifically Positano and Terzigno. Never heard of them? No, I hadn’t either, but the treasures there are spectacular and definitely worth a visit if you’re in that part of Italy.

This graphic shows how far the ash spread from Vesuvius and how deep it was. Pompeii is in the middle section, with 5-7 metres of ash. Terzigno was a rural suburb of Pompeii and suffered the same. Positano, down on the Amalfi coast, is in the adjoining section, with 2 metres of ash. And of course, in addition to the ash and pumice, there was also the pyroclastic flow which finished off those who survived the initial eruption.

vesuvius eruption AD79 graphic

Continue reading →

Author Seeks Title

Sophie has lost confidence in the title of her work-in-progress AND the ms that is coming hard on its heels. Maybe inspiration will strike but in the meantime she’s been looking at other people’s titles and trying to learn.

Author Seeks Title is one of the halts along the journey, like Doubting Castle in Pilgrim’s  Progress, that every writer has to struggle his/her way through. In my experience there comes a moment when the Subconscious decides to step in with a Jeevesian cough and say, “SO what’s its name, then?”

I will try to ignore it.
But the Big S is persistent.

I try to see it off with a careless, “It hasn’t told me yet.” Continue reading →

Historic Houses: Sarah’s Serendipitous Stopover at Ednam House

Dreaming blond retro woman with a book sitting on a meadow

Bigstock/50228168

Living in the Highlands, I do a lot of travelling, usually breaking the journey with an overnight stop somewhere. The latest trip involved staying overnight in an amazing historic house in the Scottish Borders. A surprisingly wonderful experience for someone who spends a lot of her daydreams in the past.

Charles Edward Stuart Bonnie prince Charlie. Cosmo Alexander, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Charles Edward Stuart. Cosmo Alexander, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

 

We stopped at Ednam house, a beautiful 18th Century house tucked away in the old market town of Kelso. The house is built on the site of Chatto Lodge, Bonnie Prince Charlie’s residence when his army occupied the town in 1745.

The house was built in 1761 for James Dickson, whose portrait hangs over the fireplace in the entrance hall. He commissioned architect James Nisbet to build the house. It was Nisbet’s first major commission, and before that he had worked as a mason on some of Robert Adam’s designs in Scotland. The celebrated artist  Joseph Rose created the elaborate Italian plaster ceilings.

Dickson’s own life was a rags to riches adventure… Continue reading →

Are you a puzzler? And what do your favourite puzzles do for you?

Joanna muses on her love of puzzles, even though she’s not that good at them…

My regular puzzles

I have a routine on Sundays. I read the Sunday papers, over coffee and croissants. When I’ve finished reading, I do — correction: I TRY to do — 3 puzzles in the Observer: the Killer Sudoku, the classic Sudoku, and the prize crossword.

And I do them in that order which is a bit daft since the Killer is the one I find most difficult of the three.

crossword puzzles

Image by Steve Buissinne from Pixabay

The Sunday before last, I managed to finish the two Sudoku puzzles, but I could not finish the crossword. Clue 1 across defeated me. Even though it was only 4 letters and I had 2 of them from the down answers. I had R, Blank, M, Blank.

Unfortunately the clue led me to the answer MEME. But I was sure that I had the correct answer to clue 1 down, beginning with R. I knew it couldn’t be MEME in any case, because that was the answer to a different clue, later on. Tearing my hair out, I even googled the clue and the internet told me that the answer was definitely MEME. Continue reading →