"What Do You Do Besides Write?" -- And a Fantastic Giveaway

If you're a writer, are you ever asked, "What do you do when you're not writing?" Of course, we have food to cook, houses to clean (more or less), a job to go to, children or elderly parents to care for...the list is unending.

But what do you do for fun? Do you feed your writing muse through any other activity?

In this first post in my new mini-series, I'm going to share how I spent a Saturday helping Renee and David Gillespie, professional living historians and owners of Pumpkintown Primitives, prepare for an historical marketplace. 

This was taken in Beaufort, NC in 2017. The Gillespies are standing in front of
Captain Sinbad's ship which he built by hand. Notice Renee's dress.

She dyed the fabric and the dress was made by Fort Downing.

Weeks before I volunteered to help, Renee (also known as my favorite Indigo Girl) died silk scarves.

Notice how when extracted from the vat, the cloth is first green,
then within 60 seconds after hitting the air, the cloth turns a nice shade of deep blue!
Sometimes Renee dyes the fabric 6-8 times to get the color she wants.

After stirring the vat of indigo dye, she hung up the fabric and scarves to let them dry.

The fork which Renee uses to stir the vats
was owned by Jim Lyles, a "dyeing genius" who
taught at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

By the time I got there, she had already soaked the scarves in alum and set the color with mordant.

Renee demonstrated my job, which was a simple task compared to the hours she had already invested into each scarf.

Afterwards, we had a nice pile of scarves of many different shades of blue.

Renee is experimenting with men's ties and matching handkerchiefs.

Renee also marbleizes scarves.Wouldn't sets of these make
wonderful groomsmen gifts?

After I pressed them to make the color stick, Renee washed each piece again and then hung them out to dry.

Notice the bowties on the top left!

We were proud of our accomplishments!

I am holding a roll of scarves which
is how Renee transports them to a show.

David modeling one of Renee's
new creations--a marbleized bow tie
that I ironed!

I won't be able to attend their next event, but you can be sure that I'm going to try and attend one soon! 

Their booth at a previous show.

And who knows? Maybe in my spare time I'll become a reenactor too. You never know what I'll end up doing besides write!

Maybe I'll get to wear
an indigo scarf like this.

Renee and David take Pumpkintown Primitives on the road and have appearances in Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, and New Jersey. Contact them through their website and find out when they'll be in a town near you.

********

NOW--for the fantastic giveaway!

Renee will make you a customized indigo scarf!  The winner will pick the shade of blue and the size of the scarf--square (33"x33") or rectangle (14" x 72").  Leave me a comment to enter this contest once. If you answer the question, "What do you do besides write?" OR share this on social media, OR become a new subscriber to my blog, your name will be entered twice. REMEMBER! Leave me your email address if you are new to this blog and how you shared it. Giveaway ends January 26. 

Voices on The Road Blog Tour and Giveaway

Who doesn't love audio books? You get to drive, exercise, cook, rake leaves, paint your house, or take a walk at the same time you listen to a book. To help promote the Audio Publisher's Association celebration of audio books, I'm featuring several of my favorites. (If you need more examples, search this blog (top left hand corner under "audio book/s" or "books on CD). At the end of this post is a fantastic giveaway for you to enter!

Saskia Maaleveld narrated Indigo Girl by Natasha Boyd (Blackstone Publishing, 2017) which I absolutely adored. Ms. Maaleveld brought this historic Charleston, SC story alive through her beautiful portrayal of both white and African American characters.

Ron Butler narrated Just Around Midnight: Rock and Roll and the Racial Imagination by Jack Hamilton (Harvard University Press, 2016). His melodious voice fit the tenor of this nonfiction book which depicts the links between racial identity and music in the 50's and 60's. 

Emily Wilden narrated Longbow Girl by Linda Davis (Chicken House, 2016) which is another one of my favorites. At first Ms. Wilden's Welsh accent was a little difficult to follow, but I ended up thinking that her accent lent authenticity to a story that takes place in modern and ancient Wales.

Gemma Dawson narrated Fire Color One by Jenny Valentine (Penguin Random House, 2017). Ms. Dawson did an impressive job with male and female voices and British and American accents in this gripping young adult book about a girl struggling with pyromania. 

Multiple narrators performed Restart by Gordon Korman (Scholastic Press, 2017). Each actor did an excellent job personifying their character. As a result, the atmosphere of middle school alliances and conflicts was authentic and realistically portrayed. 

I love to listen to books on car trips. The time passes much quicker when I'm gazing at miles and miles of asphalt highways while my mind is imagining fields of indigo, rock musicians in the 50's,  ancient Wales, or the drama of middle school. My brain is engaged and quite frankly, I have "read" many more books since starting to listen to audio books.  As this article points out, audio books are also great for reluctant readers and audio learners. 

Click on this link for more reviews of audiobooks. As a part of this blog tour, Galaxy Press, Hachette Audio, Harper Audio, High Bridge Audio, Macmillan, Penguin Random House Audio, Post Hypnotic Press, Scholastic, Simon and Schuster Audio, and Tantor Audio have generously donated audio books as giveaways. Leave me a comment by December 1--make sure you leave me your email address--if you win, one of these publishers will select an audio book for you. What a great surprise to receive in the mail!

Indigo Girl: An Audio CD Review and Giveaway

Congratulations to Connie Saunders for winning REFUGEE. I haven't added it up, but I believe Connie gets the prize for winning the most books off my blog. Her secret? She always shares my posts on Twitter!

I love finding a book which make a setting so real to me that I look it up on a map. Couple that with a Southern young woman who impacted history and a book written with captivating, beautiful language, and I’m hooked. (Caveat: I listened to this as an audio book courtesy of Blackstone Audio so quotations might not be 100% accurate.)

REVIEW

INDIGO GIRL by Natasha Boyd is the story of 16-year-old Eliza Lucas, who lived outside of Charles Town (Charleston), SC in 1739. A British subject, she spent her formative years in Antigua where her father was governor. He moved his family to South Carolina only to decide that he needed to return to Antigua to ensure his political career. With her older brother studying in England, Eliza’s father turns over the responsibility of running the planation to Eliza. 

Eliza is smart, unconventional, and botanical. During a time when young women were groomed for marriage and nothing else, Eliza refuses to be boxed into conventional expectations. Despite her mother’s disapproval and the ridicule of her father’s overseer and neighboring planters, Eliza is determined to not allow her father’s debts to ruin their family.

As the manager of her father’s three tracts of land, Eliza is also in charge of their slaves. Eliza is predisposed not to treat them harshly but her understanding of their situation matures. Early in the book she thanks Quash, the black man who oversees the slaves. Then she thinks, “It's odd to be thanking someone who has no choice."

She dreams of being able to afford to pay her workers rather than be dependent on enslaved workers. This radical thought comes when a suitor confesses he wants to enslave Native Americans to work for him; she realizes he could never be her life companion. She feels small and powerless when her closest friend says Negroes are uneducated savages. 

Her best friend in Antigua was a Negro named Ben. She taught him how to read and he passed along a love for plants that he learned from his grandmother. When Eliza decides that the plantation needs a cash crop to keep the family afloat, she picks indigo, a plant she saw in Antigua. But growing, harvesting, and converting indigo into a dye is a complicated process that no other coastal South Carolina planter has had success with. Eliza’s first crops fail and she desperately needs help. She knows Ben has the expertise she needs, but how is she going to find him?

Her father sends her a man to help her and to her shock and surprise, the man brings Ben too. Now a grown man with the promise of freedom dangling over his head, Ben remains aloof from Eliza. She’s crushed, confused, and stuck between childhood and womanhood. She wants to run back to be a child with her best friend. But she can’t. He is an educated slave who longs to be free.

Ben challenges her in ways no one else can. “Why have you not taught your slaves to read and write?”  “Why do you want indigo?” She’s angered at the blurring between master and slave and then realizes that if her indigo is successful it will be because of Ben’s knowledge. She’ll get rich but he’ll get nothing—not even his longed for freedom. Along the way Eliza learns of The Negro Act but faced with Ben’s challenge, she decides to teach the slave children how to read the Bible—something even her mother can’t object to.

Eliza’s dilemmas drive the book. By managing her father’s estate, she is seen as not very marriage-able. Without a husband, she feels as if she is chattel like her slaves. She bemoans her rashness when she speaks her mind to men--like to her father’s employee who tells her she is too intelligent to be a woman. Yet her need to ensure the indigo’s success to secure her family’s financial future and be a source of revenue for her if she never marries--as well as the nation’s need for a stable export--propels her forward. 

A comprehensive author’s note shows the author’s inspiration for this well-researched book, including what was fact and what was fiction. Boyd’s desire to bring this forgotten pre-revolutionary figure to light is admirable and makes this a great book for both teens and adults. Beautifully narrated by Saskia Maaleveld, this audio book will captivate your imagination and keep you company for many hours. 

GIVEAWAY

Leave me a comment by October 5 for a chance to win this audio book. Share this on social media or start following my blog and I'll put your name in twice--just make sure you tell me what you do or tag me. You can find me on Twitter here, and on Facebook here. PLEASE leave your email address if I don't have it!

Author Signing and Article

Celebrate Indigo Girl's book birthday tomorrow by meeting Natasha at Fiction Addiction in Greenville, SC on October 5. Check out Natasha's schedule for a signing near you--including Charlotte, Savannah, and Charleston.

And one last tidbit: Natasha writes about the compulsion she felt to write Indigo Girl here.