Tomorrow just happens to be National Cowboy Day. Yippee! Bet’cha didn’t know that. Well, it is. And the Fillies are celebrating. I’m gonna find my rope and get ready to lasso me one sexy hunk of man!

Come and help us celebrate. The more the merrier. Just get your own cowboy because you ain’t gonna take mine! He’s spoken for. Before it’s over I’m gonna have him bagged, branded, and bedded. Just you wait and see. *wink*  

A Louisiana gal, Miss Lenora Worth, will arrive here tomorrow. Yippee!

Miss Lenora will bring us the subject of a Texas helicopter pilot who’s a modern day cowboy. Instead of wrestling steers he wrestles a flying machine. You gotta have guts and nerves of steel for both. And a whole lot of love for our country.

If you want to learn more about Homecoming Heroes and a larger-than-life Texan, then aim your horse over toward Wildflower Junction tomorrow. You’ll have a good time. Ah promise. 

How many of you have stayed in a luxurious 4 or 5 star hotel?  Though pricey, these hotels offer the utmost in comfort and amenities to their guests.  As I flip through Vacation Home Magazine, edited and partly written by my daughter Nikki (proud mama am I) I’m often amazed at the height of extravagance that the “other half” have at their fingertips.

Private suites, in-room saunas, terraces with private pools, huge flat screen TV’s, top of the line furnishings, astounding views, food prepared by top-class chefs, are all the norm.  It’s expected. It’s expensive. It’s extravagant. 

Since my Suite Secrets series begins this month with Five-Star Cowboy, I’ve been researching contemporary hotels and I got to wondering what was considered a top notch hotel in America during the 1800’s. 

A LOOK BACK

The Crescent Hotel and Spa was known as the most distinctive and historic hotel in America in the late 1800’s.  Set on 27 acres on the crest of West Mountain in Arkansas, the 78-room resort was built by Eureka Springs Improvement Company and the Frisco Railroad costing $294,000.  As writers and readers and lovers of history know, that was an extraordinary amount of money in that day.

Chosen for its stunning location overlooking the valley, guests traveled far and wide hoping to cure their ailments and ease their pain from the “healing waters” of the Ozarks, at the spa.

When the hotel opened in 1886, Eureka Springs Times Echo, called it “America’s most luxurious resort hotel”.  The grand opening included a gala ball, a full orchestra and a banquet dinner for 400 guests. 

The hotel offered airy, spacious rooms, exquisite furnishings, a 500 capacity dining room as well as a swimming pool, tennis courts and croquet amid flower gardens and winding boardwalks.   Guests could also enjoy the healing waters of the spa, afternoon teas, stables, and elaborate parties in the evening.  

After the turn of the century, the hotel’s prosperity faded as people realized the healing waters of the area were disappointing at best. The waters didn’t have curing abilities as the hotel had vowed and guests stopped coming to the luxurious Crescent Hotel.

TIME LINE

1886

Crescent Hotel and Spa opened with grandeur. 

1908-1924

The hotel became the Crescent College and Conservatory for Young Women.

1930-1934

After sitting abandoned for six years, the building opened as a junior college.

1937

The hotel became the Baker Hospital known as a cancer hospital and health resort advertising miracle cures.  Baker was later arrested for fraud, practicing medicine without a license, selling his miracle cures for more than $500,000 yearly through a mail service in Eureka Springs.

1946

The hotel was purchased by a businessman, who had hoped to restore the place to its original elegance. The hotel changed hands for many years.

1967

A fire swept through the hotel and destroyed much of the fourth floor and west wing.

1997

The Roenigks began a 5 million dollar restoration, including a New Moon Spa with Vichy showers, a hydrotherapy tub and sauna, tanning beds and exercise equipment.  The furnishings were all updated, the rooms renovated the landscaping, plumbing and electricity all redone. 

2002

The Crescent Hotel, owned by the Roenigks, once again became one of the most visited hotels in the South, fully restored to its stately glory. 

AN ADDED AMENITY

Staff and guests alike tell stories of a number of ghosts who still inhabit the old hotel, from the original stonemason who fell to his death during the building of the hotel, to the butler who’d been spotted carrying a tray of butter down the hall, to a nurse pushing a patient in a gurney, from the old hospital days of the hotel’s history. 

Today many visitors stay at the hotel hoping to see one of these apparitions who some claim still walk the halls.   

So what’s the most extravagant hotel you’ve stayed at?  Did you have Flat Screen TV in your bathroom?  A pool just outside your door?  Any hauntings to reveal? 

Starting today, I’m running a fun hotel story

Blog Contest on my personal site.  If you get a chance check it out and tell me your story!

And don’t forget to enter our Sizzling Summer Stampede of Prizes Contest here at Petticoats!

 Happy Trails and Suite Dreams!

 Click if you’d like to purchase.

 “Oh, you push it up here,

You pull it down there.

You tighten up the middle till you’re gaspin’ for air.    

Oh, a corset can do a lot for a lady,

Cause it helps to show a man what she’s got.”

This little ditty, from a very old movie called “The First Traveling Saleslady,” says it all.  Women have been wearing corsets for hundreds of years (think Queen Elizabeth I and her cone-shaped figure).  The style has changed according to fashion, but the basic construction remains the same, as well as the main reason for wearing the contraption (see above ditty).

Corsets are typically made of a flexible material, like cloth, and stiffened with boning (also called ribs or stays) inserted into channels in the fabric. In the 19th century, steel and whalebone were favored for the boning. Featherbone was used as a less expensive substitute for whalebone and was constructed from flattened strips of goose quill woven together with yarn to form a long strip.

Corsets are held together by lacing, usually at the back. Tightening or loosening the lacing changes the firmness of the corset. In the l800s heyday of corsets, a well-to-do woman would be laced by her maid.   However, many corsets also had a buttoned or hooked front opening called a busk. Once the lacing was adjusted comfortably, it was possible to leave the lacing as adjusted and take the corset on and off using the front opening. Self-lacing is also almost impossible with tightlacing, which strives for the utmost possible reduction of the waist.  (How could we forget Scarlett O’Hara hanging onto the bedpost while Mammy yanked her laces?)

In the 1830’s, the corset was thought of as a medical necessity. It was believed that a woman was fragile, and needed assistance from some form of stay to hold her up. Even girls as young as three or four were laced up into bodices. Gradually these garments were lengthened and tightened. By the time they were teenagers, the girls were unable to sit or stand for any length of time without the aid of a tightly laced corset. The corset deformed the internal organs making it impossible to draw deep breath, in or out of a corset. Because of this, Victorian women were always fainting and getting the vapors. 

The practice of tightlacing reached its apex in the 1890s.  It was the ambition of most girls to have, at marriage, a waist measuring no more inches than the years of their age—and to marry before 21.   

Working-class women (except when dressed for special occasions) usually wore looser corsets and simpler clothes, with less weight. The higher up in class a lady was, the more confining her clothes were. This was because she didn’t need the freedom to do household chores.

The corset is still very much with us—just open any Victoria’s Secret Catalog.  Women no longer cinch their waists to wasp proportions.  But some current practices I could name are just as drastic.  What do you think?  Opinions, anyone?  

P.S.  I’ll offer a choice of my current books to the first one who can name the two actresses in the above photo.

Saturdays with old friends…you can’t beat that with a stick.

Miss Lenora Worth will come calling to talk about a subject near and dear to her heart.

She’s enthralled with the U.S. military and the sacrifices our men and women make for their country. Miss Lenora’s other passion is the Hometown Heroes Series that her newest Steeple Hill book is a part. “Lone Star Secrets” features a Texas hero with a Texas-sized heart.

Ah don’t care how you get here Saturday. You can sashay, mosey, or prance. Ah don’t care. Just so you get here. It won’t be as much fun without your smiling face! And bring a flag you can wave.

Ah, Research. It leads you down a twisting turning rabbit trail.

I wanted my heroine, in 1880 Montana Territory to be impoverished by her worthless husband, who spends all her money, dies and leaves her alone in the merciless west. But I wanted her to still have some unknown valuable thing.

I came up with an old, old family Bible. Her worthless husband somehow knew it was valuable and he mortgaged it. A nice, cruel moment of betrayal for poor Cassie.

Well, turns out that Bible, which the Banker forecloses on but kindly agreeds to work hard to find it’s true value, sends the book back east only to find out it’s a Gutenberg Bible worth………………………

 (insert cricket chirp here)

That’s right. I can’t find out worth WHAT????

I can find out all about it being printed! I know Mr. Gutenberg’s life story! I can find out what it’s worth NOW! I can find out how many copies exist NOW! I even found out where each and every one of those Gutenberg Bibles are and what condition they’re in NOW!

But I know antiquities always had value. I know it because…Louis L’Amour told me in To The Far Blue Mountains. Barnabas Sackett, found old stuff in England, Roman statuettes and coins and the like, and sold them and paid for his trip to America.

So I’m minding my own business, Googling everything I can think of about antique books, historical prices, Gutenberg, and man oh man it just got so interesting.

My conscience speaking “Mary, stop being such a baby. Stop reading and go write your book for heaven’s sake.”

So I’ll tell you a little bit about my research and why it caught my interest so deeply.

1454 – Gutenberg Bible…this Bible was the first use of the Gutenberg Press

            Someone told me once that, although electricity was added of course, the Gutenberg Press was essentially unchanged from 1454 until the invention of the computer. The little iron letters, lined up by hand and inked and rolled over paper. How cool is that?

            There were only 180 Gutenberg Bibles made but that press was so revolutionary it changed the whole world. Until Gutenberg ALL PRINTING had been done by hand. There was no other way. Can you imagine it? No wonder no one could read. Why bother? There weren’t any books.

1492 – Columbus discovers America

            This is important (well, no, it’s probably NOT important to my book, but it’s interesting) because it helps us to realize just how long America was discovered before a permanent settlement survived in North America. There were settlements in Hispanola and Cuba and San Salvador and other places. And of course the settlements we talk about are in North America by the first recorded Europeans (don’t get me started on the Vikings coming earlier, another long rabbit trail—bottom line? Vikings didn’t write stuff down—Columbus did) Think about this, too. The Europeans tried and tried and tried. They’d leave people behind at a settlement and come back in a year and nuthin’! ALL GONE.

It’s said (Again, maybe by Louis L’Amour…no, I’m sure I’ve heard it other places-I don’t get ALL my history from Louis!) that there WERE Europeans in the New World before Jamestown. Their settlements didn’t survive but some of the people did. They moved inland, some lived among the Indians, some lived on their own. But they were essentially lost forever.

1517 – Martin Luther nails his 95 Theses to the church door. The Gutenberg Press (Gutenberg again) enables this document to be reprinted and spread all over Europe. Protestant Reformation Begins.

Here’s where it starts to get pretty fascinating. Do you ever think about what a wild-eyed radical Martin Luther must have been? And he wasn’t alone. Yes, he wrote these Ninety-Five Theses but he had friends. These guys were truly, truly, deeply radical. They were taking on the whole world with their writings. It truly did start out as a reformation. They wanted to REFORM the church not break from it. But that was a hugely dangerous proposition. If you want to find out just how powerful the church was, check out this next one……………

1524 – William Tyndale burned at the stake for translating the Bible from Latin to German

Death penalty. For translating the Bible into a language that could be understood by more than a tiny handful of monks. They had some serious clout there!

1538 – First English Language Bible

The king had it done. Henry XIII. Far more well known for his wastrel lifestyle and multiple marriages. I suppose fundamentally Henry did it to be a trouble maker. Or maybe not. I could keep hunting for motives!!!

“The Pope won’t let me get a divorce, well guess what? I’m starting my own church.”

Okay, Mary is putting her own spin on history with that one!!!

I suspect Henry’s motives were far less pure and honestly less radical than Luther’s. He just wanted his own way. More of an arrested adolescent than a radical

1560 – First recorded use of the word Puritan

But it’d been going on since even before Martin Luther’s 95 Theses. This was a caldron boiling for a long, long time.

1565 – St. Augustine, Florida, first surviving European settlement in New World

I included this just because it made me aware of the old saying, “The winners write the history books.”

Do you ever really realize that Spain had the first permanent settlement in North America? We think Jamestown. Maybe Plymouth Rock. But they came later. But in school they teach English-centric history. And, oh yeah, there’s a really old town in Florida, too.

And at some point they might even mention there are some pyramids in Mexico and Peru. Oh, yeah, there were people here before even the Spanish. Even before Columbus.

1620 – Pilgrims-a part of the Puritan movement-land in Plymouth Rock. This is the second successful New World Colony. Jamestown was founded in 1607.  St. Augustine, Florida??? Fuggedabouddit

I’m going to stop now. But I’m telling you there is no fact in this article that you couldn’t look up and read for an hour. Man oh man that Columbus guy was a jerk. Also a flippin’ genius, driven, in his own way a complete radical and one heck of a sailor. He figured out Trade Winds. Which, I’ve heard the word before but I didn’t know much about it. I could write a blog about that.

The King James Bible, another whole really interesting trail to follow.

Jamestown…they tried eighteen times before the next ship came back and found people. Go read about The Lost Colony of Roanoke. The word ‘Ill-Fated’ is used waaaaaaaaaaay too much.

Columbus had four trips to the New World. He died thinking he’d landed in Asia. He got to Central America and South America. I didn’t know that. I thought he was stuck on the islands. And I thought it was three trips.

His body was moved six times after his death. Was it because he was wanted or unwanted???

Martin Luther – I’m writing a whole post on something called The Diet of Worms. The title here is just a teaser, mainly because I thought it was so weird sounding…hint-it’s got nothing to do with eating or worms. Very interesting.

You think Martin Luther was a radical? I’m going to tell you about Patrick Henry sometime. He made Thomas Jefferson look as calm as a 92 year old nursing home resident on triple strength Haldol (a drug nicknamed Chemical Labotomy–and I could write about THAT, too!)

Oops, wait. I said I was going to stop.

Does any of this surprise you?

So, what of all this didn’t you know? What do you want to add? What did I get wrong?

And, most importantly, does ANYONE know what a Gutenberg Bible would be worth in 1880? And could such a book, already ancient in 1880, be in private hands? My heroine’s great-grandmother was a Spanish princess so there might be some room for the woman to have owned something unusually precious.

Or is there some other old thing you can think of that would be valuable?

How about if Martin Luther had scribbled NOTES on the Gutenberg Bible???

What do you think Louis L’Amour would make of all this?

Click on the cover to purchase Petticoat Ranch, Calico Canyon or Alaska Brides.

Find out more at: http://www.maryconnealy.com/

Good Morning!

In an ongoing series on survival, Native American style, I thought we would have another look at food.  As you know there are three things that are needed for basic survival.  Those are, food, clothing and shelter.

In my last few blogs, we’ve been discussing the first requirement of survival, food.  So far we’ve looked at where to find food, what kinds of food can you find and the fact that one needs to have freedom of movement in order to find food.  Today let’s have another look at another important part of food — fire.  Fire is needed for cooking of course, but as you know, in a survival situation, it is also needed for warmth.  Fire can also be a very needed element in keeping safe — i.e. fighting off animal like wolves.  I’m not so certain fires might keep bears away, but I loved this picture.

But how to make fire without matches.  Unless you are very well prepared, you might find yourself without matches.  I may not be able to teach you to start a fire in this article, but we can go over it a bit.  Now, most Indian tribes used the drill and twisted it by hand or with their bow, the string of the bow wrapped around the drill or wood made into a rod.

The rod would fit into a socket in a piece of wood.  Placed beneath this was some tinder that could easily catch fire.  The bow was held at right angles and was twisted, producing friction.  The motion also would pulverize the small particles of wood, which are there to catch fire.  The tinder would eventually begin to glow, meaning that it was ready to produce fire.  Of course there was a very human element involved in making fire.  If the bow wasn’t kept at an utter right angle with the wood, it would often slip, frustrating the person making the fire.  However, with practice, most Indians could start a fire within minutes.   You also have to understand that I have to get in this photo somewhere in my post.  Handsome, handsome Adam Beach.

Now once the wood was ready to ignite, it was important to add oxygen, thus one blew on the embers, putting dried grass or moss on the fire in order to get it to ignite.  Needless to say, the type of timber that one used was very important, also.  However, this isn’t the only way to make fire.

Late at night, one might not be able to find the exact tools needed to make a fire in the way mentioned above.  There was also the stone method.  This requires two needed things, which one should carry at all times:  1) flint — 2) lump or crystal with iron pyrites.  This kind of stone is available all over the US.  All that is needed to create fire with this method is striking the stones together.  Sparks will fly and one should have dried grass or dried moss available to catch those sparks, and by adding oxygen (blowing on the sparks) one can create fire.

OF course there are other ways of creating fire — one of the best is lightning.  But one doesn’t always have that available on a cold, snowy night.  It takes a great deal of practice, but it’s a skill that might become handy at some time or place.  The Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts used to teach this skill and perhaps they still do.  It’s a skill worth practicing — even if you don’t see the use of it right now.  As the boy scout motto goes:  “Be prepared.”

I should also note that the Indian kept his fires small and as smokeless as possible.  He also scattered his ashes the next morning so as to prevent others from seeing exactly where he had been and what he was doing.  It was a safety precaution. 

By the time this is posted, I will most likely be on the road, and so while I might not be able to join in the discussion, I’d love to hear your camping stories.  Has anyone ever had to make a fire by hand?  And if you have, how did you do it?  I’d also like to hear other camping stories.  There was a time when being without a hair dryer was “camping” for me.  So come on in and chat.  And if you haven’t already picked up a copy of THE LAST WARRIOR, I would like to invite you to do so.  It is on sale at bookstores everywhere.

Maureen drew  name for an autographed set of her trilogy!  Wow, what an awesome drawing prize, eh?

And the lucky wonner is….

Nathalie!

Nathalie, send your address to Maureen at mmckade@yahoo.com.

She’ll get those boks out to you asap!

To everyone who visited Wildflower Junction this weekend, WE APPRECIATE YOU!

Next week, more than 2,000 of us will be attending the RWA writer’s conference in San Francisco. So, I got to thinking about job descriptions. Jobs are hard to explain. I’ve had all sorts, starting as a young teenager—tomato picker, waitress, prison volunteer, venetian blind salesperson, blueprint designer, RN, medical writer (still do this freelance), television researcher, and where I’ve found my niche, novelist. I think I was destined to be a writer because ever since I can remember, I’ve wondered what it would be like to be in the other person’s shoes. 

Waitress taking my burger order? I wonder if she has family waiting for her shift to end. Person who rotates my tires?  I wonder what kind of music he listens to. Doctor advising me on a bout of bronchitis? I wonder if she had a hard time finding a parking space.  I can spend hours researching  job details to include in my novels. They’re the attitudes and hidden agenda of each character, whether the person is an undercover Mountie pretending to be an alcoholic drifter (the hero in KLONDIKE FEVER) or a gold miner who’s just struck it rich and has it all stolen (the heroine). 

There must be things about your job you wish you could explain to others. Difficult things, funny things, things only people in the business understand. Well, in honor of the upcoming RWA conference, here are a few humorous confessions from my life as a writer.

You Know You’re a Writer When…

by Kate Bridges

Have you ever tried to explain to your friends or significant other the headache of yet another revision,  or dilemma of three main characters whose names all start with F? Getting through the daily writing grind takes energy, hard work and a sense of humor. You know you’re cursed—blessed—to be a lifelong writer if the following signs apply to you… 

10)  You’re breathless at the sight of your thesaurus. 

9)  Even brochures in the doctor’s office are interesting research to you now.  “How to Manage Bunions.” 

8 ) You love or hate movies on a whole new level.

7)  Your partner wants to give you an extra special birthday present. You get the choice of a romantic dinner and night out on the town, or to upgrade the hard drive on your computer. You choose the hard drive and a sandwich.

6)  Those painful childhood memories are suddenly very valuable. You wish you had more painful memories to draw upon.

5)  You spend more time deciding on the names of your characters than you did on your own children.

4)  You look forward to once-a-week grocery shopping for the social interaction.  

3)  When you enter the home of a new acquaintance, you feel strangely suspicious if there are no books in sight. 

2)  You enjoy starting hypothetical arguments with your partner—the ‘what if’ scenarios. “If I died tomorrow, how soon would you begin dating someone new?” 

1)  You’re thrilled to discover the word ‘infection’ was in use in 1875!

What are some of the jobs you’ve held over the years? Inside the home, or out. What was your very first job? Are there any details—positive or negative—you’d like to share?

Kate Bridges loves the writing life. She drove her husband crazy with hypothetical questions while writing KLONDIKE FEVER. She loves the smell of libraries, running her fingers along the crisp edge of a new pack of paper, and buying pens in every color.  www.katebridges.com.

 Link to a book on Amazon:

I had so many great replies to my Monday blog that I had to toss them all in a hat and pick one.    The winner is Connie Lorenz.   Connie, if you’ll send me your address at papotter@aol.com, I’ll send you a copy of “A Lady”s Life in The Rocky Mountains.”   Thanks to all of you for telling me about your heroines.