Katherine Keenum

Oct 12, 2017 8:20 AM EDT

Maybe there is some way you can refute the criticism from someone who cited a character and dialogue that's not even in the book. If you take an Amazon account, you can list your opinion in the reviews making it clear this person did not have the correct information.

I have an account there, and even though I didn't buy the book through Amazon, I'll see if I can leave a review clearing up this erroneous description.

- Patricia Franzino

Oct 12, 2017 8:33 AM EDT

Thanks, Pat!

You are such a big support. It would be lovely if you left a friendly review so that it became the most recent.

I did try to report that I thought a mistake had been made, but I'm not sure anybody was at the other end. And, goodness, just think what happens to controversial authors! I'll count my blessings that readers like you are behind me.

Thanks again,
Katherine

- Katherine Keenum

Oct 12, 2017 8:45 AM EDT

I just left a comment and talked about the countess/boundaries review saying that I just finished reading the novel and there was no such character and maybe the reviewer confused it with another book. I added other positive opinions.

Amazon has all sorts of people reviewing every item.
I just purchased a product that I sent back. I read all reviews, and only one person had the correct answer. Everyone else loved it. If I had listened to her, I wouldn't have had the hassle of returning it and waiting for a refund.

- Patricia Franzino

Oct 12, 2017 9:21 AM EDT

Oh, thank you, Pat. And what a good point you made in your review that readers should go back to older novels to experience the language of their times. They should!
Cheers,
Katherine

- Katherine Keenum

Sep 21, 2017 7:02 AM EDT

Thank you for such an inspiring blog.

I remembered a quote from Churchill who was asked to cut arts funding to support the war effort. He said, "Then what would we be fighting for?"

A flamenco teacher was at a seminar I attended. He spoke about having dance, any dance form, social or otherwise, taught from the beginning of a child's education. He saw dance as a humanity course to help people learn we are all connected to each other.

- Patricia Franzino

Sep 21, 2017 9:14 AM EDT

Thanks, Pat. I had never seen the Churchill quotation before, but I'll certainly tuck it away now. And your flamenco teacher's observation is spot on. I've been reading recently about the evolution of music in the human species. Music is not only sound, but also rhythm. Movements like dancing and marching in formation are profoundly important to our mental and social development.

- Katherine Keenum

Sep 18, 2017 6:58 AM EDT

This is a gorgeous picture. The reflection of the light across the picture within the picture is glorious in the amazing talent it takes to produce something like this.

I like pictures I can walk into and feel a part of it all.

- Patricia Franzino

Sep 18, 2017 1:17 PM EDT

Yes, I loved it because it was a very particular space that I felt I could walk into—and then invent a similar space with differences.

- Katherine Keenum

Sep 07, 2017 8:27 AM EDT

To see that milk wagon is yet another reminder of where women still are today in the US and around the world.

I went to the website where you found this picture, and there are so many items listed that I want to look at more deeply.

The one I went for right away was the one about keeping ballet tights up in previous centuries before lycra spandex. I had no idea about this and never thought about it. They put pennies into the silk material and twisted it in front, sides and back, and then put a sash around this to try to keep them in place. The dancers were told not to sit down as it caused the waistband to stretch.

A great ballerina in her time, Alicia Markova, told a story about this that is mentioned on the site. She and her partner were giving a performance, and his belt fell off around the waistband exposing his privates. He didn't use any pennies underneath. He ran off the stage to fix it, and she had to keep dancing until he returned.

The site talked about pennies hitting the floor during Shakespearean sword fights because the men wore tights for this, too.

There's information about a woman called Elizabeth Powell from the 18th-century. Household accounts were found in a trunk from that time showing more about her life after the deaths of her two young sons and later on her husband. She was a confidante of George Washington and convinced him to run for a second term for president.

- Patricia Franzino

Sep 09, 2017 4:21 AM EDT

Wonderful, Pat! I missed the link about the ballet tights. Now there's a bit of technical information that either a dancer or a historical fiction writer can use someday. Good eye.

- Katherine Keenum

Sep 01, 2017 6:44 AM EDT

It's a beautiful banner. I'm glad it's so well-preserved. It would have been terrible to lose it. I've seen documentaries about Women's Suffrage. The film of Emmeline Pankhurst's death for the cause is one of the most horrific examples I've ever seen of the desperation women faced then and now to push their rights for representation. The women in the Middle East have one hell of a fight to have a life of normal choices.

- Patricia Franzino

Sep 01, 2017 11:03 AM EDT

Pat, It's so true about the need to fight on for women's rights everywhere. Sad that I can set a novel in 1908 and still have it relevant! Katherine

- Katherine Keenum

Aug 19, 2017 8:24 AM EDT

It's astounding to see this replacement for heart or love in another century. I thought this symbol was only contemporary in advertising or toward an individual. It took more time to create the shape and fill it in. Le Franc and other artists who might have used it had to take more time for its creation. They must have felt strongly about who or what it referred to.

- Patricia Franzino

Aug 19, 2017 9:54 AM EDT

I thought it was only contemporary advertising, too. And let's add a hope that hearts prevail in our troubled times.

- Katherine Keenum