How to Write Like Austen? (Maybe)

by Linore Rose Burkard

          Looking through some old newsletters from JASNA (The Jane Austen Society of North America), I came across something fun: An interesting link shared by author Carrie Bebris, a fellow regency novelist. She says she keeps her writing style in the vein of Austen's by using http://www.writelikeausten.com. 

If you type in a word, it will tell you if it appears in any of Austen's works--and how many times, too. It will also give you synonyms that Jane used--and point out a few she did NOT. There's more on the site that any respectable Janeite will enjoy, so I encourage you to take a look. But can it really help you write like Austen?

 
Just for fun, I entered a few words I used in my first regency, BEFORE THE SEASON ENDS.

"Prinny"--a caricature, by Gillray

I discovered that Jane never referred to the Prince Regent as "Prinny." (Though Mr. Mornay, the hero of BTSE, as well as the prince's inner circle of fashionable friends, did. Probably not to his face.)  


Neither did Jane once refer to the elite fashionable district of London (that regency writers today are so fond of), "Mayfair," by name. 


Interestingly, she used the word "Fortune" (ie., one's wealth) 222 times. (Hmmm.)
"Money-- 127
"Rich"--78
"Estate"--77 times.
"Marriage"--246
"Church"--53
"property"--55
"Jointure"--only 3 times (A jointure usually referred to a widow's income, sort of an annuity.)
"Wealth"--33 times.
 "Pounds"--95
"Wedding"--333

Going over that above list is like reviewing many of Austen's themes in brief, although her true themes cannot be reduced to single words. 

 For fun, I entered a few more words we all associate with Jane Austen, such as,

"Pride"--138 times
"Prejudice"--35
"Sense"--238--quite a lot 
"Sensibility"--69
"Gentlemanlike"--24 
"prodigiously"--5 (only! huh. And "prodigious"--only 9 times.)

Out of curiosity, I also tried the site's "Austen Writer," in which you can insert a paragraph of text and see how it compares to, in their words, "Austenicity." (Love that word! Austenicity.) 
So here's how the opening paragraph of my novel, above, made out.
I entered the following:

Something would have to be done about Ariana.

All winter Miss Ariana Forsythe, aged nineteen, had been going about the house sighing.  "Mr. Hathaway is my lot in life!"  She spoke as if the prospect of that life was a great burden to bear, but one to which she had properly reconciled herself. When her declarations met with exasperation or reproach from her family--for no one else was convinced that Mr. Hathaway, the rector, was her lot--she usually responded in a perplexed manner. Hadn't they understood that her calling was to wed a man of the cloth? Was there another man of God, other than their rector, available to her? No. It only stood to reason, therefore, that Mr. Hathaway was her lot in life.Their cold reception to the thought of the marriage was unfathomable.

How did it do? Except for the proper nouns, ONLY the following words from this excerpt were never used by Austen

exasperation, responded, hadn't, wed, available. 

I could take that to mean the writing has significant "Austenicity," right? But wait, maybe not. 

To compare, I took a paragraph from my contemporary novel, FALLING IN, and entered it into the site. 

Here's what I entered:

      ...Pat felt in his pocket, and that's when he pulled out a small felt-covered box, the kind that held rings. He was grinning.

        Oh, my gosh! He's going to propose! Sharona was shocked. Not happily shocked. It was an unwelcome idea, that of getting married. They'd only been dating for five months!  Sharona's heart constricted. Pat was cupping the box reverently in one hand, waiting for her to take it. She reached for it woodenly, her mind a jumble of thoughts.  It was true Pat had given warnings, saying things like, "Junior partners don't become senior partners in my firm without a wife; preferably a couple kids, too." Pat's superiors were mostly old-school, white-haired men, and they liked things traditional. But Pat had always followed such statements with a laugh, so Sharona never took his words as a hint of something coming. She hadn't dreamed he'd been serious.

In this case, the app again flagged personal pronouns, but also every single compound word and contraction; as well as "constricted," "cupping," "reverently," "woodenly," "preferably," and "dreamed." Jane Austen did not, apparently, use many adverbs or modifiers. (Perhaps we can learn something here!) Most words, however, were not flagged.  

This tells me two things:
1. You cannot use this little tool to write like Austen, although it will tell you if a word was never used by her.
2.  Jane used quite a few words in her writing that we still use today. And that's it! 

Still, it was a fun exercise. 
If I could find an app to do the same for writing like Dickens, now, wouldn't that be fun?

Do you read Jane Austen? Or regencies? What is a favorite word of yours from the period?




Linore Rose Burkard  is best known for her Inspirational Regency Romance Series, which whisks readers back in time to early 19th century England. Authenticity and heart-warming adventure are par for the course in her books. Fans of romance in the tradition of Austen and Heyer (such as Pride & Prejudice, Cotillion, and even My Fair Lady), enjoy meeting Linore's feisty heroines and dashing heros.
   
All excerpts above, copyright 2015 Linore Rose Burkard 

  

 

Regency Medicine

By Jillian Kent



I love researching my Regency era novels. For those of you who haven't ventured into this kind of research yet be warned: it's addictive. Of course you have to love history or it might not have the same effect on you.:) I'm a counselor by day and have worked in the mental health field for years so it shouldn't surprise anyone that I'm fascinated by books like: Undertaker of the Mind: John Monro and Mad-Doctoring in Eighteenth-Century England (Medicine and Society) by Jonathan Andrews and Andrew Scull and Customers and Patrons of the Mad-Trade: The Management of Lunacy in Eighteenth-Century London, With the Complete Text of John Monro's 1766 Case Book by Jonathan Andrews and Andrew Scull.

I always felt sorry for King George III. Can you imagine losing your mind and your job, let alone the ability to reign as king because of a medical disease that no one even knew existed, let alone had any idea how to treat?

Roy Porter wrote my kind of books: Blood and Guts: A Short History of Medicine, The Cambridge History of Medicine, Quacks: Fakers & Charlatans in Medicine (Revealing History),Patients and Practitioners: Lay Perceptions of Medicine in Pre-industrial Society (Cambridge Studies in the History of Medicine), Medical Fringe & Medical Orthodoxy, 1750-1850 (Wellcome Institute Series in the History of Medicine). If you've never heard of him just go to Amazon.com and look up the volumes of books this guy wrote. I think he wrote something like 80 before he died at age 55 not long ago. Porter is an incredible resource.

While researching information about the origins of the stethoscope I discovered via Porter's book and the internet that the stethoscope was invented in 1816 by Rene Laennec.

Dr. Laennec had been trying to listen to the heart of an obese woman and because it was necessary for him to put his ear to her bare chest he didn't want to be inappropriate, so he rolled up a newspaper and listened to her heart that way and voila it worked well. He could hear the sounds of the heart more clearly and the history of medicine took a new direction: the development of the stethoscope.

THE MONAURAL STETHOSCOPE

I've read that it was Charles Thomas Haden who brought the stethoscope to England. He became a friend of Jane Austen when he attended her father.

Internet resource:

http://www.antiquemed.com/monaural_stethoscope.htm

The movie Miss Austen Regrets depicts a jealous Jane Austen silently fuming over the attentions paid by a young doctor to her 22-year-old niece, Fanny Knight. The doctor, Charles Thomas Haden, is portrayed by Jack Huston, with Olivia Williams as Jane and Imogen Poots as Fanny.



Have you ever discovered a historical fact that just blew you away? What historical novel or movie has wowed you lately?

Tidbits About Cumberland Caverns

By Lynn Coleman

This past month my family and I were on vacation in Eastern Tennessee. One of our activities was to visit the Cumberland Caverns. I've given you a link to the website so you can follow up with more information.

This history of this cavern dates back to 1810 when they were discovered by Aaron Higgenbotham. Of course, they were probably known before then by native Americans. Inside the cave it was a cool 56 degrees with temps as low as 50, which was wonderful when it was in the high 90's outside.

The cave was mined for it's nitrates during the civil war and donated to the Southern cause.

Here's a pic of the opening of the caves as our family waited to go in: We're not all there but 13 of us went through the Cumberland Caves.









Here's a picture of some of the interesting rock formations inside the cave. You can see the Gypsum in the rock formation here.







Here's one of the pools inside the cave. Note this picture was taken by my granddaughter.





•Originally known as Higgenbotham Cave, after Aaron Higgenbotham discovered it in 1810.

•Trail of Tears goes around the Cumberland Cave and can be walked today.

•The Cumberland Caverns is what you would call a dry cave.

•I also learned that when a stalagmite and stalactites connect they are now called a column.

•There are 7 miles of passages within the cave, we experienced only 2.

•You can camp overnight. One school group visited the caves years ago back in the 70's and spent ten days in there. I asked what time of year was it? July was the answer. And I answered that explains why they stayed so long with temps that remain 56 degrees.

Now the tour we took was easy without any gear and reached by most. Unfortunately there was a series of stairs that prevented me from seeing one section of the cave. But it did give Paul and I a moment to experience the darkness of the cave as the timed lights went off. It wasn't completely dark as there were some lights that stayed on in the distance. However, our children and grandchildren experienced placing their hands up to their faces and not being able to see them when they turned the lights off in the section I couldn't climb to.

Lynn A. Coleman is an award winning & best-selling author who makes her home in Keystone Heights, Florida, with her husband of 41 years. Lynn's latest novel "The Shepherd's Betrothal" is the third book in her Historical St. Augustine, FL. series.

Check out her 19th Century Historical Tidbits Blog if you like exploring different tidbits of history.

Please Pass the Napkins

by Linda Farmer Harris

Our favorite Mexican restaurant in Pagosa Springs does a cute fold with their napkins. The fan may be paper, but it lends an air of elegance.

Ramon's Mexican Restaurant, Pagosa Springs, Colorado

When I was growing up, napkins were cotton and I hated it when mom hauled them out for company meals. I was the one who had to iron them. I learned to cut and hem-stitch napkins in home economics class. I must have been absent on the day the teacher said to pre-wash the fabric. The napkins mom insisted on using were my not-square-cut, lope-sided linen ones. Why? She said the hem stitching was beautiful, well-executed. I looked at the tiny even stitches, but couldn't see beyond the imperfections of the whole napkin.

I vowed to use paper napkins when I married. I wanted to put them on my bride's registry list. Guess who nixed that one.

The first documented method to clean soiled fingers after a meal is attributed to the Spartans of ancient Greece, who used a Apomagdalia - a small piece of dough rolled and kneaded between the hands. It was thrown to the dogs as the guest left the table.

The Sudarium, credited to the Romans as the ancestor to the first cloth napkin as we know it, was a small cloth similar to a handkerchief used to wipe ones brow. Mappas, made of fine silks and linens embroidered with gold and woven with color, were brought to the host table to carry leftovers for the journey home.

Napkins became common in the sixteenth century. They were very rarely washed, so folks used a personalized napkin ring to distinguish their dirty linen from their dinner guests.

Touailles date back to the Middle Ages. This towel size communal cloth was folded lengthwise to indicate a servant's rank at Court. A high ranking servant draped it over his left shoulder as do today's Maitre'D. A lower ranking servant draped it over his left arm as do today's waiters.

A Surnappe was a long towel given to the guest of honor. Other guests used a communal bath-sized towel brought around by a servant.

The Lord of the Manor had the Portpayne, a folded, decorative napkin. It held the bread and knife. It was folded to the left of the plate with the open end facing the lord. Still done in today's table etiquette.

On July 9, 1887 Englishman John Dickinson, a stationery manufacturer in west Hertfordshire, England used paper napkins for his annual company dinner? Called serviettes, they were used in the August 9, 1902 coronation of Edward VII.  

In 1931, Scott Paper was the first American company to market paper napkins. However, they didn't become a popular household item until the 1950s. It's said that currently the average person uses six paper napkins daily. Project Gutenberg has an interesting document From Paper-mill to Pressroom by William Bond Wheelwright at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/47959/47959-0.txt


A cloth napkin is called a Serviette in the United Kingdom, Ireland, some parts of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. However, in Australia and New Zealand Serviette generally means a paper variety and napkin is cloth. Canada used the same distinction until the early 1980s, but now rarely uses the term Serviette.

It was the wedding and anniversary gifts of place mats and matching cloth napkins that turned the tide for me. Now I collect them from places we travel. They must be natural fiber not synthetic. Yes, I used cloth placemats and quality paper napkins at every meal.

Thus began my love affair with the art of napery (folding napkins). I searched library shelves and haunted half-priced and second-hand stores for old books on the art of napkin folding. I was surprised at the number of booklets in antique stores for brides and party planners with equally antique dates that gave examples and how-to instructions. 

The Practical Guide to Napkins and Napkin Folding by Rick Beech was a marvelous find. So was the ten methods of folding Serviette in Mrs. Beeton's 1861 Book of Household Management plus her 1923 Beeton's Napkin Folding Illustrations. Her folds are still used in catering today.

Visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJozU0h5lao for a demonstration of the Rose and Star from Mrs. Beeton's book. Although the example of the two below look complicated, they're very easy.

Sometimes called Water Lily, check out instructions for the red one at 

http://www.fold-a-napkin.com/186/all_napkins/water-lily-fold/

or watch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ol5UDxPoyM4

You can do a simple triple fold as a silverware holder. Visit the tutorial:
http://delightfulwoman.com/napkin-fold-tutorials-for-an-amazing-table-setting/

Or you can do a delightful rose in a glass.

Change napkin colors for different look

One of my favorites is from the Marie-Antoinette table at the ©Court of Versailles, France.

Various folders have different names for the same fold. For example, the Bird of Paradise is also called the Shell, the Sail Boat, and the Cock Crest. Some refer to the art of napery as origami, the Japanese art of folding paper into shapes of birds, animals, etc.

9 Ways to Fold Fancy Holiday Napkins

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwin8xt4KOI

If you feel you must iron while you fold, try the Dinner Jacket napkin at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNOuC7BwWmg

Or finger press a cute shirt with a ribbon tie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXdGmopfta8

At https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uikE-w_eDnY, a delightful gentleman, Luigi Spotorno, author of Luigi's Language of Napkin Folding (2006) shows how to fold a two-color Dinner Jacket. Put his name in YouTube and you'll get a nice array of his demonstrations.

Since the early 1980s, napkin folding has fallen victim to hygiene, saving water, and unfriendly detergents. This is an declining art that without practice or training our grandchildren will set an uninspired, unimaginative table.

Wouldn't napkin folding be a great skill for children's restless hands? This would be a great home school project.

Do you fold your crisp, maybe even starched, cloth napkins into fun decorations for special occasions?

Blessings,

Lin

Linda Farmer Harris

Lin and her husband live a ranch in Chimney Rock, Colorado. She writes historical fiction for adults and children. Her enjoyment of genealogy and family history adds unique elements to her stories. 

She has a nice collection of daily use cloth napkins, but she still hates ironing them.

The History of Hershey’s Chocolate!

Hello, from Michele Morris!

When I look at the picture to the right, it just makes me smile. It’s a simple thing, really . . . milk chocolate and coffee with hazelnut creamer. Yummy! This is one of my favorite indulgences.  

For more than a hundred years, chocolate has brought many smiles to the faces of Americans. We celebrate holidays with chocolate, give it as a reward, and we relax after a stressful day with chocolate.

Chocolate bars, drops, chips, and pieces fill the shelves and checkout lanes of our grocery stores. We sometimes stash it in our pantry and purse. Chocolate has even been a part of military rations in twentieth century wars.  

Chocolate is everywhere!

Did you ever wonder how it became such an ingrained part of our daily lives?

Milton Hershey c.1905

Chocolate has been around for a long time, but it was Milton S. Hershey who pioneered the mass production of milk chocolate for middle-class America. 

Hershey Factory

Mr. Hershey’s legacy began in 1894 when he decided to make a sweet version of chocolate to cover his caramels. The coating was a hit, and a new demand for the creamy confection soon inspired Milton S. Hershey to expand his business. In 1900 the production of milk chocolate bars, wafers and other shapes started an enterprising new business in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and the mass-production Milton Hershey was able to lower the price of his candy and make it more affordable to all Americans.

Dates and Notable Events of the Hershey Chocolate Company:

1894 – Milk chocolate coated caramels.

1900 – The mass production of milk chocolate brings the price down and makes the candy available for most Americans.

1905 – Hershey’s new factory opened, and local citizens and farmers find steady work with the company.

1907 – The flat bottom Hershey’s Kisses roll out of the factory. Each confection is hand wrapped in a square tin of foil.

1927 – Hershey copy writes his Candy Kiss, and the paper plume is added to the top for a show of authenticity.

1925 – Mr. Goodbar candy bar is added

 

1926 – Hershey’s Syrup is created                             

1928 – Hershey’s Chocolate Chips comes to market

1938 – Krackel candy bar is added to the line-up

1956 – H.B. Reese Candy Company was sold to Hershey Chocolate Corp.

1983 – Reese’s Pieces are made for the movie E.T.

Hershey’s Corp continues to grow and is committed to the quality and value of Milton Hershey’s vision for his candy company.

I love a plain ole milk chocolate bar . . . nothing fancy, no almonds or crunchiness, just creamy chocolate.  

Would you tell us in the comments, what your favorite candy is? Could it be a Hershey’s candy or something else? Do you have a favorite way or place to eat your candy? Do you enjoy it all to yourself or share it with a loved one? Let us know . . . and thank you for joining me on Heroes, Heroines, and History.

The Second Great Awakening--and a Giveaway

I’m sure if you believe in God and have for any length of time, you’ve probably experienced the frustration of praying for something without seeing the results you are hoping for. This experience seems to be a right of passage with God, a test that one must pass in order to get to the next level. Very often, God places a promise of something in our hearts long before the promise will be fulfilled.

John Erskine

So is the case of John Erskine of Edinburgh, Scotland. Erskine felt a prompting of God to pray for revival in 1744. He asked many of his friends to join him in a “Concert of Prayer” for the next two years. They prayed every Saturday evening and Sunday morning, as well as the first Tuesday of each new quarter, that God “would appear in His glory...by an abundant effusion of His Holy Spirit...to revive true religion in all parts of Christendom...and fill the whole earth with His glory.” Dutifully, they prayed, and they saw some effect, but not the sweeping moves of God that they hoped for. After a time, the Concerts of Prayer waned, leaving many to feel they’d had no effect.

Years passed. Life carried on. Tensions between Britain and the colonies intensified until the colonies declared independence. War broke out, and people’s focus centered on the crisis at hand. At the end of that conflict, the people of America found themselves far from God and in a state of moral decline. Across the ocean, the French Revolution was in full swing, bringing with it another crisis to keep people’s focus from seeking after God fully. Infidelity and rationalism grew rampant in Europe. The world seemed to be going bad all at once.

Yet God hadn’t forgotten the promise he gave John Erskine for revival.  Once again in 1784—nearly forty years after the initial prompting—Erskine felt the stirring to pray for revival again. This time, he reprinted a call to revival prayer given by Jonathan Edwards, a key player in the Great Awakening of decades earlier. Because of Erskine’s efforts to distribute the booklet and call others to pray, many churches across all denominations, both in Britain and the U. S., agreed to institute Concerts of Prayer each Monday night. They continued this pattern for the next seven years.

In 1791, another central figure from the First Great Awakening, John Wesley, died. Even as churchgoers mourned his death, the stirrings of revival began to break out among the industrial towns of Yorkshire, England. Suddenly, church membership just among the Methodist denomination skyrocketed from 72,000 to nearly 250,000 across the next 20 years. Churches in Wales, Scotland, and Ireland became full—so full that they spilled over into open fields where more people could attend.

Isaac Backus

By 1794, America was sensing the spiritual shift, and twenty-five men in New England gathered to form a Concert of Prayer there. Led by Isaac Backus and Stephen Gano, these men distributed letters calling others to pray on the first Tuesday of each quarter. Within a year, revival broke out, and within four years, it had reached every state. Students attending colleges across the nation began to seek God in droves. In fact, Yale saw half their student body become converted to Christianity during the year of 1795.

Itinerant preachers, known as circuit-riders began to go into less populated or frontier areas and preach to those living in the distant locales. Camp meetings popped up in frontier areas, where residents of a wide region would come to a central area and camp for a week while attending meetings put on by the circuit-riding preacher. They would worship with hymns, hear sermons, and share communion.

Other outcomes of the revival were the inception of many missionary societies, both in Britain and America. Social reforms also took place. Slavery was abolished in Britain, and an abolition movement began in America. Prisons were reformed. Sunday Schools and benevolence institutions were started. Temperance societies were formed, and women’s rights and women’s suffrage became a hot topic of discussion.

By 1800, the awakening reached Switzerland, Scandinavia, and Germany, and before it waned in the 1840’s, it had reached central Europe, South Africa, India, and the Pacific Islands.

It’s your turn. Do you believe there will be another worldwide revival like either the First or Second Great awakenings? If so, do you expect to see it in your lifetime? Leave me a comment to be included in the drawing for my second release—The Convenient Bride Collection.

Jennifer Uhlarik discovered the western genre as a pre-teen, when she swiped the only “horse” book she found on her older brother’s bookshelf. A new love was born. Across the next ten years, she devoured Louis L’Amour westerns and fell in love with the genre. In college at the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. Armed with a B.A. in writing, she has won five writing competitions and finaled in two other competitions. In addition to writing, she has held jobs as a private business owner, a schoolteacher, a marketing director, and her favorite—a full-time homemaker. Jennifer is active in American Christian Fiction Writers and lifetime member of the Florida Writers Association. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband, teenaged son, and four fur children.