When a friend emailed me to say my book had hit Number 6 on the Bestselling Fiction list of our local newspaper, the Calgary Herald, I was a bit stunned. I ran out to buy a copy of the paper, and had to open it to the Books section before I believed her. Sure enough, there was my name in the newspaper in proximity to literary heavyweights like J.K. Rowling and Kristin Hannah (The Nightingale is on my bedside table).
After I got over the initial excitement of being on the list, I realized why it meant so much to me. The reason I write is mostly to express my creativity – telling stories by playing around with words, plot and characters. It’s fun. Or I probably wouldn’t do it. But when I take time to really dig deeper into why I pursued publication, I realized it wasn’t for fame (too fleeting and superficial) or for money (impossible to make money at this gig!). It was so that my stories would reach a greater audience than just family and friends.
Discovering my book on the bestselling list means I’ve reached a broader audience. That’s where the lasting satisfaction lies – knowing there are readers out there willing to be taken on Gabbi’s adventures – for better and for worse. Mostly for worse, because that’s what makes stories, after all.
So thank you to all those people who purchased The Art of Rebellion, and are reading it. Welcome to my world. (Ed.note – The Art of Rebellion has appeared on the Calgary Herald bestseller list four times in 2016, most recently at #5.).
The wise saying goes, “It takes a village to raise a child…” but when it comes to launching a book, I believe this also applies. It certainly did for mine. I cannot express my gra…
The wise saying goes, “It takes a village to raise a child…” but when it comes to launching a book, I believe this also applies. It certainly did for mine.
I cannot express my gratitude enough to all of those who worked behind the scenes to prepare the food, the decorations, the house and yard, and those who worked diligently and joyfully during the launch party evening.
I’m also grateful to family and friends who came to the launch, listened to my readings and even bought some books. And, especially, a huge thank you to the team of wonderful authors/editors/artists/marketers at Rebelight Publishing, who took a chance on my story, envisioning it to be a published novel! Thanks to Deborah Froese, Suzanne Costigan, Melanie Matheson and Melinda Friesen.
Now for the “villagers” behind The Art of Rebellion – in order of mug shots below…Maureen Boudreault, Dave Loader; Lucas Johnson; Lanice Jones; Rona Fluney; Joyce Sunada; Sandy Kemmet; Maryse & Peter Doner; Barb Lawrence; Diane Standing; Guy Sunada; Carole Atkinson; Inge Leahy; Vicki Keller; Stella Ehrler (who donated the book launch cake, created by her daughter Alix); Mark Moss and my amazing husband,Reyn Johnson; Eric Norrie; Connie Takken; Ellen Sidorsky; Jane Senda (not present but present in spirit through her gift of The Art of Rebellion aprons and tote bags).
June 30, 2016
91 guests assembled for the launch of my debut YA novel, The Art of Rebellion, published this spring by Rebelight Publishing (Canada). Many of my friends contributed their creative talents to decorate and prepare for the event – flower bouquets made out of book pages? Miniature Eiffel Towers? No problem, thanks to Lanice Jones, Rona Fluney, Maureen Boudreault, Diane Standing, Carole Atkinson, Vicki Keller! Alix Ehrler, created the spectacular book launch cake.
Friend and satcheler, Jane Senda (see teagarden-satchels.com) created aprons featuring the book cover, unveiling them the night of the launch. We missed you, Jane. Thanks for modeling the aprons – daughter Maryse, son Luc and spa sister Sandy Kemmet!
Ninety plus hungry guests for the evening? No problem – our son Lucas Johnson agreed to cater the event. Far from daunted, he’s now considering offering a personal chef service (contact him through this website for now).
Just like a Parisian cafe, the chalkboard menu greeted guests at the door.
Luc’s food was fabulous, as anyone who attended could attest to. Arctic char bar – char flown in from Iqaluit personally by Lanice Jones, who also created the French pastry madeleines (when she’s not saving lives as a doctor). French macarons also came from our kitchen, in large part created by Maureen Boudreault. Here’s a sampling of the food we enjoyed:
A Parisian cafe-style awning highlighted the entry table (designed by Barb Lawrence) which displayed stacks of my books tied up with ribbon, as well as a draw basket filled with goodies. The awning, made by super-talented friends Maureen Boudreault and Dave Loader, is actually cardboard, covered by awning fabric, and really set the tone for all the decor for the night.
Inspirational speaker, wellness coach and uber-friend, Joyce Sunada, was the MC for the evening (see http://www.joyfulendeavours.com). She kept things moving along smoothly, solving minor emergencies and mishaps without my knowledge. About 2 hours into the night, champagne was served and guests asked to gather outside on the lawn. Along with the draw for the gift basket, I read three separate passages from the book, cut the cake and signed copies of my book.
Whew! The last guests left after 2 a.m., after helping with clean up (Thank you Inge Leahy, Joyce Sunada and Sandy Kemmet!!) It was a great night, thanks to the many family and friends who showed up in support. Now – a breather before organizing public readings and signings this fall.
During the Belle Epoque, a woman’s hair was her “crowning glory” – much as today. Up to and including the late 1800’s, European women wore their hair long and almost always styled up. Bobs didn’t come into style until after well after the turn of the 20th Century, indeed not really until after WWI. Even then, a short hair style on a woman was considered terribly daring.
Hair styling for 19th century women was a complicated, time-consuming affair. Hygiene standards from 1900 were a far cry from today. One magazine from that time advised “once a month” shampooing to ensure the scalp stays clean and the hair “pure”. Drying was a lengthy affair, for portable hair dryers were not available yet. In winter or on rainy days, one had to lay before a coal, gas or wood stove, sometimes for hours. After 1890, some Paris salons boasted a new invention – the hair dryer. However, it was a large floor model with a metal bonnet attached to a chimney pipe of a gas furnace, that blew hot hair onto the head. As you can imagine, women were at great risk of burns with such contraptions. It makes me appreciate my sleek, light hand-held dryer!
Many women, particularly more mature women (such as Gabbi’s mother Desiree), simply parted their hair in the centre and pulled their hair back into a severe bun at the nape of the neck. More stylish women preferred their hair drawn off the shoulders and into a snug knot near the crown of the head. Bangs were in fashion, often tightly curled, as were wavy locks on either side of the face. The Marcel curling rod, invented by a Frenchman, was indispensable by the late 1800’s and was heated in a small stove. Tightly curled bangs were especially fashionable at this time. By the end of the nineteenth-century, the more natural look of either the Pompadour or Gibson girl styles were becoming popular. These are described in the novel, and essentially a woman’s long hair is swept up and back from her face, often over a hair rat (see below), loosely knotted at the crown, with a few curls hanging on either side of her face, and perhaps the nape of the neck for evening.
Accessories included hair “rats”, which were mesh balls that were often used to give height to an updo. Women saved their own hair from their hairbrushes and then formed it into a natural “rat” or hairpiece. More decorative accessories included hair combs of tortoise-shell, bone or wood; ribbons or bows, wigs or partial wigs; tiaras or jewelled headbands for evening for the upper classes.
Women and men sometimes dyed their hair, but dyes were unreliable and damaged hair so badly it often wasn’t considered worth the risk. Hair products included various tonics, glycerine, ointments or oils, for women and men.
Of course, hats were de rigeur as soon as one left the house. By the end of the 1800’s, hats were huge and elaborate. Summer hats were often straw boaters but were decorated with ribbons, artificial flowers and even bird’s wings or feathers. At the 1900 World Expo held in Paris, fashion reporters gushed over hats “as big as dressing tables”. One wonders why women bothered to spend so much time on their hair if it was covered up by such large, elaborate hats, to say nothing of the weight of it all!
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I hope you’ve enjoyed visiting my website, and are as excited as I am about the impending release of my historical novel, The Art of Rebellion. Look for it in independent bookstores and on Amazon and Chapters online.
Over the course of the next several weeks in this blog, I’ll expand upon many of the fascinating facts I stumbled upon while writing the novel. My first blog, already posted, is all about detective cameras – miniaturized cameras developed in the mid- to late- nineteenth century that allowed for secretly photographing people or places – imagine a camera hidden in a hat or pistol!
My next post will explore nineteenth century hairstyles – for men and women. Discover what a “hair rat” is and how one was used, plus many more hair fashion tips from over one hundred years ago. I’ll try to spare you from some of the grosser details. 🙂
As always, I welcome your feedback! (See the Contact tab on my website).
One of the main characters from The Art of Rebellion, Philippe Lucien, becomes obsessed with miniature “detective” cameras. Researching 19th century photographer was fun – imagine cameras concealed in top hats, tie pins, revolvers and the heads of walking canes! Although detective cameras became a useful tool for a private detective such as Philippe, interest in the cameras and in the art of photography overtook his interest in investigating.
One of Philippe’s favourite detective cameras was the top hat camera, which he uses on several occasions to photograph Gabrielle surreptitiously. Another hidden camera he uses is the photo-cravate, hidden behind his cravat (tie), with the aperture appearing as a tie pin. This clever camera was invented by Edmond Bloch, a Parisian.
Philippe claimed his favourite detective camera was one hidden in the base of an innocent-looking whiskey glass.
As I learned more about detective cameras, I discovered that, as luck would have it, many of the innovators in photography were Frenchmen, such as Gaspard Tournachon, aka Nadar. He was a cartoonist, but reinvented himself to become one of Paris’ finest portrait photographers. He photographed mostly men in the elite and upper classes of French society. One woman he photographed was George Sand, journalist, novelist and Chopin’s mistress. Nadar became famous throughout Europe after he took the first photograph from a balloon (1858). He also photographed the catacombs of Paris, pioneering the use of magnesium flares for light.
A well known French explorer, Maxime du Camp was initially contemptuous of photography. However, in 1849 he toured the Middle East with Gustave Flaubert (famed French novelist). He was clearly busy photographing on that trip, because after he returned from the trip, a book containing a hundred and twenty-five of his photographs was published in Paris: Egypte, Nubie, Palestine et Syrie (1852).
I’d like to think that Philippe would meet the Notmans when he explores Montreal in search of the best place to practice photography. Born in Britain in 1826, William Notman went to Canada and from the mid 1850s took photographs of the country. Notman also photographed famous personalities of the period, including Buffalo Bill and Sitting Bull. His work forms a valuable record of Canada’s life, people and customs during the second half of the nineteenth century.
The studio Notman founded, Wm. Notman & Son operated until 1993. By the turn of the century, Charles Notman was gaining praise for his portrait photographs, making Notman’s the leading studio in Montreal by the end of the 19th century.
If you’re interested in pursuing resources on detective cameras, these will get you started:
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