BEES, MEAD, AND MEDIEVAL ROMANCE

Today Over Coffee welcomes debut novelist Oberon Wonch. With the “feasting season” beginning, I asked Oberon to talk about something food-related from her medieval romance, Come to Me. Take it away, Oberon!

 

 

Hello, Sia! Thank you for hosting me here today. I enjoy catching up on your blog and love to linger

over your posts of life in the Ozarks, especially the photos of landscapes and wildlife, some of my favorite things to get lost in on the Internet. 

So, it’s not surprising that bees and beekeeping fascinate me, too. Anyone else? I love the imagery of the old-timey wicker skep sitting in a garden. Since the heroine of my first book, Come To Me, is an English noblewoman living in 11 th century England, and we know from writings of the time that mead (fermented honey) was a widespread favorite of the Germanic and Scandinavian peoples of post-Roman Europe, I wanted to include beekeeping and mead-making in my story.  

Here is a fraction of what I learned about bee husbandry. 8,000-year-old cave paintings show that honey-gathering has been taking place since pre-historic times when people risked life and limb to climb trees and rob wild hives of the sweet, gooey liquid. Ancient Sumerian, Greek, and Chinese writings discuss managing bees and providing adequate, manmade habitats. Bee culture became supremely important to the Egyptians, was adopted by Rome, and then spread through all of Europe.  

Even back to our earliest days, we wanted a little sweetener in our cuisine and went to great lengths to procure it, isn’t that something?  

 

By the time of the Norman conquest of England in late 11^th century AD, beekeeping was an indispensable industry. An Anglo-Saxon noblewoman’s responsibilities included keeping bees (in those lovely, conical straw or wicker baskets called skeps), extracting honey and beeswax, and overseeing mead production.  

The entire arc of beekeeping, from capturing a swarm, to monitoring hives through the summer, to harvesting the honey and comb in the autumn, is a world of information too broad to address here.   

However, making the mead was incredibly simple and a tribute to the thriftiness of the medieval housekeeper. Throughout the warm months as honey was gathered, comb was squeezed through linen gauze to extract the last drop of honey for household purposes. The comb and the gauze were rinsed with water (the comb then rendered for its wax to make candles), and the water was left in covered vats to ferment via the natural yeasts existing in the honey and surrounding air.  

Variations in this process were practiced (for example, herbs and spices were added for flavor), and later written recipes called for boiling 4-to-1 parts water and honey rather than merely using the strainings.   

So, that’s my little peek into one tiny aspect of life in the Middle Ages.

Are you as fascinated by bees and beekeeping as I am? Would you like to someday try mead made in true medieval fashion?

  

Oberon Wonch’s debut medieval romance novel, Come To Me is available wherever digital books are sold. 

Come To Me  

A maiden’s duty becomes a woman’s desire…  

In this twist on the classic Cyrano story, Bridget of Shyleburgh is ordered to help Count Grégoire FitzHenri, the new Earl of Shyleburgh and the man she secretly loves, court another woman.  

Mortified at first, Bridget soon finds herself completely enthralled by the earl’s whispers of love and desire. His heated wooing tempts a fair maiden to stray down a path filled with forbidden pleasures. But his words are meant for another… aren’t they?  Read More at Amazon

  

Oberon Wonch has engaged in a love affair with books for as long as she can remember. Penning her own stories from an early age, she later earned a degree in World Literature while studying several languages--all in order to learn what makes a tale endure the ages, but really just to read more books. Her very favorite stories--both to read and write--are those that celebrate the happily-ever-after. She enjoys connecting with readers. Contact her through her website at www.oberonwonch.com or follow her on Twitter @OberonWonch and on Facebook. 

THE HIGHLANDER'S SWORD--Review

The Highlander’s Sword


By: Amanda Forester

Sourcebooks
Price: $6.99
Publication Date: March 2010






A quiet, flame-haired beauty with secrets of her own…



Lady Aila Graham is destined for the convent, until her brother’s death leaves her an heiress. Soon she is caught between hastily arranged marriage with a Highland warrior, the Abbot’s insistence that she take her vows, the Scottish Laird who kidnaps her, and the traitor from within who betrays them all.



She's nothing he expected and everything he really needs...



Padyn MacLaren, a battled-hardened knight, returns home to the Highlands after years of fighting the English in France. MacLaren bears the physical scars of battle, but it is the deeper wounds of betrayal that have rocked his faith. Arriving with only a band of war-weary knights, MacLaren finds his land pillaged and his clan scattered. Determined to restore his clan, he sees Aila’s fortune as the answer to his problems…but maybe it’s the woman herself.



My thoughts:

I have always loved Medievals, particularly by authors such as Roberta Gellis, Catherine Coulter, and Jude Deveraux. In today’s world, big fat Medievals are a thing of the past. Now everything has to be fast paced, spare in narrative, must happen in a short period (like a few weeks or even a few days) of time. In my opinion, the current style comes up short in showing the rich splendor of the times. I always have the feeling half the story is missing because I only get a condensed section of life and time.

I’ve sampled several Medievals, Scottish in particular, and have been left with a feeling of hmm, Scottish you say? Medieval? Or characters with contemporary attitudes dressed in medieval clothes spouting their lines in a Scot Brogue. Sorry, not good enough. Not one, have I read of late, is on my keepers’ shelf—my personal library. Until now.

So, it was with some skepticism I picked up Highlander’s Sword. Amanda Forester must have had some of the same ideas I had when reading the current fare of Medievals because her story is a good tale. Granted, it doesn’t span several months as did some of the medieval family sagas of old but I wasn’t left with a feeling of a half told story.

One of the things I liked (and one of my bug-a-boos) was it was historically accurate, both facts and mores of the time. Nowhere did I get the feeling of contemporary characters dressed in costumes.

Ms. Forester was able to pack a lot of story in her book. It kept my interest from beginning to the end and I was sorry it was over. Nicely paced, good dialog, an intriguing suspense, lots of conflict to resolve both between the two main characters and within the secondary characters as well.

Lady Aila’s parents have a nice side story, as does one of my favorite characters, Chaumont. I like Chaumont, he’s a warrior, he’s funny, Mr. Fashion plate, after all he is French, and he’s a ladies man. I love the close relationship between him and Padyn MacLaren. Ms. Forester skillfully shows that relationship by way of dialog—lots of razzing, but there is no mistaking the deep love, trust, and friendship between these men. MacLaren is more understated than his friend, but he’s a savvy man, excellent warrior, he could care less about how he looks and is all the more attractive for it. He makes the heart go pity-pat. Especially Lady Aila’s.

Aila is well a well-crafted character, true to her time. She’s strong, capable, well educated as she was destined to be a director or mother superior, of a Priory. She’s also a hoot. She has a way of quoting scriptures, and in more than one language, both to calm herself and to find answers. Sometimes she uses them to confound others. I laughed more than once over the way she handles things and lordy can she ride like the wind. She’s full of surprises. And totally unaware of her beauty, which is also fun.

There is a hidden villain in the story, who has an agenda of his own. That bit is deftly weaved into the story, and steps up the tension through out until the denouement. A few surprises there too.

Overall this was a very good read. I was very impressed with this debut. If you like Medievals, I suggest you hop a fast destrier and get thee to the nearest book store and snatch it up.

Excerpt:



Aila entered her father’s solar with some difficulty, her feet growing heavier with every step. Confirming her fears, MacLaren stood next to her father. The two imposing men stared at her, saying nothing. This could not be good. Her father folded his large arms across his massive chest and turned to MacLaren.


Aila was struck at the change in MacLaren. She had known him years ago when he had been a friend to her brother. The warrior now before her hardly resembled the braw, cocksure young man who had left Scotland to fight the English in France. He looked older, his slate eyes cold. A red scar carved a wicked path from the corner of his left
eye down to his chin.

“Well?” demanded her father.

MacLaren looked her up and down in a manner that brought heat to her face.

“Aye, I’ll have her.”


Aila’s mouth dropped open, and she stared at one then the other. MacLaren frowned and turned to Laird Graham.


“Ye’ve no’ told her then?”


“I’ve told no one,” replied her father. “Watch yer back, laddie. I warrant there will be some what will take offense to yer marriage.”


Marriage?

Amanda has two videos on this book, She calls them the Dueling Duo as she's trying to decide which one to use. One's humorous, from Chaumont's viewpoint and the other plays it straight. You can cast a vote for which of the two you like.

Also we have two books available for two commenters today.

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Amanda Forester holds a PhD in clinical psychology and a Masters degree in theology. As a psychologist, she has worked as a clinical researcher and a university instructor (what they call you when they don’t want to give you tenure). None of which has anything to do with writing romance novels. After trying for many years to stop the internal storylines floating around her head, she finally gave up and wrote one down. Now when she is caught daydreaming and talking to herself she can just say, “I’m plotting a scene for my next novel,” which sounds so much better than, “I’m hallucinating and responding to internal stimuli.”


Amanda lives in the Pacific Northwest with her officer and a gentleman husband and their two remarkably active, naturally brilliant children. They share their home with two fiendishly destructive cats and one lazy dog.


The Highlander’s Sword is Amanda’s first novel, so she would greatly enjoy hearing from readers.