Atlanta, RWA, Margaret Mitchell, oh my! ~Tanya Hanson

Okay, I made it home from RWA in Atlanta without melting. I’d been warned about the humidity, but it wasn’t so bad. Honest. And I even managed a bit of sightseeing. I mean, any self-respecting romance writer simply must visit the Margaret Mitchell House.

Actually it was in a small, first floor apartment inside this house where Margaret decided to “try writing a book” while healing up from a foot injury that kept her from her newspaper reporter job.

Hmmm. Try writing a book? The book of all fiction books? The first book I tried writing is, well, I think it’s stuffed in the attic somewhere. Those were the days when that dinosaur called “the typewriter” didn’t save or print anything. No matter, the tale is garbage. But Margaret’s typewriter can be worshipped today in the apartment. It might be a reasonable facsimile thereof, though. Nonetheless, the miracle machine produced her One and Only Book. Sheesh.

She wrote the last chapter first. When a publisher visited, wanting to see her work, she first refused. Then gathered up the manilla envelopes stuffed throughout the place, each one holding a chapter.

Talk about a pantser. Oh, a pantser who never got rejected. Sheesh some more.

Supposedly some parts of the book are autobiographical. A suitor with the initials C.H. did die in the war. (WWI)  She married one man while in love with another, hubby’s best friend. (No matter, it all worked out.) She didn’t have kids because, well, Scarlett didn’t think much of motherhood either. Remember her little unwanted Wade and Ella? I always thought SO MUCH of Rhett for liking those kids.

Of course I was unable to resist purchasing the massive hardback copy as a souvenir. I think it added six pounds to my luggage weight, but the airport didn’t say a thing.

Oh, the day I visited was a first-rate, hot Atlanta day. Therefore, I also purchased a MM bottle of water proudly wearing the taglline “I’ll Never be Thirsty Again.”

Good times.

All right, today you must answer this gut-wrenching question in order to get in a name draw for a PDF or Kindle copy of my latest release, Midnight Bride. Who’s your LEAST favorite character in GWTW? (If I’d said favorite, y’all would pick Melanie. I decided to kick things up a notch.) And please tell me why.

Now, about Midnight Bride. This is a couple who does give a damn about each other. Forced to marry or else lose the ranch they both think they own, Jed and Carrie fight off falling in love while she searches for her late granddaddy’s will. Hoping to prove her bridegroom is an imposter. And of course deep down, she doesn’t want any such thing...  

Sigh.

Excerpt

   He stood in the doorway, hatless just like he’d been in the mercantile. And just as breathtaking.  In one hand he held a bunch of Miss Mattie Price’s iceberg roses tied with a lavender bow.

     From the other hand hung a hatbox from Gosling’s Mercantile. The lilac shawl she had admired was draped over his forearm.

     Without a word, he walked over to her and laid the shawl gently across her shoulders. She had stopped breathing. His eyes locked with hers, and while she couldn’t read the message in his gaze, she found she couldn’t turn her own away. When he held the flowers to her determinedly, she had no choice but to take them.

     “Take off that mourning bonnet,” he told her in such a way that it didn’t seem like an order. While she did so, he opened the hatbox.

     Within a half minute, the beautiful purple chapeau she had fingered lovingly not fifteen minutes ago rested on her head. He tied the bow jauntily under her chin, then all but snapped his heels together as he stood in front of her. 

     “I’m Jed Jones,” he announced. “Your bridegroom.” 

     Carrie’s lips opened but no words came out. Not knowing what to say or what else to do, she untied the bonnet’s bow.  He never stopped looking at her. From the corner of her eye, she could see the older men in half-standing postures like they hoped to escape any second. However, she knew them well, knew they wouldn’t leave her all alone.

     Suddenly she found her voice, willing it not to tremble.      

     “My bridegroom? I beg your pardon. What on earth are you saying?” She turned toward the judge. “Is this about that ‘notorious’ authentic document?

     Judge Jacobson was nodding, somewhat defeated, while the sheriff pulled at his scrawny beard.

     When neither spoke, her supposed bridegroom took up the call.

     “It’s true, Miss Zacaria Smith. If you don’t marry me by midnight tonight, the Lazy J-Z will be deeded to the Mother of Mercy Orphanage outside San Antone.”

     Then he took her hand, placing his lips against the inside of her wrist.

http://tinyurl.com/m9p63sj      Amazon

http://tinyurl.com/k8knsw5       The Wild Rose Press

www.tanyahanson.com

Numbers--Tanya Hanson

I do have a new release (Midnight Bride), but I'll regale you with that next time. You see, I'm on my way to Atlanta, GA for the Romance Writers of America's national conference. My very first time South...unless one count's DisneyWorld which I really don't. One of my scheduled outings is a visit Thursday night to the Margaret Mitchell House where some great-big-name romance authors are doing an evening reading!

So...that immediately reminded me of Gone With the Wind. Then came to mind other Civil War stuff that has fascinated me, such as the Jimmie Stewart classic movie Shenandoah.  (I just read that Sam Elliott fell in love with Katharine Ross the first time he saw this movie!)  Recent visits to Gettysburg and Harpers Ferry reinforced its allure. Peeking through a flea market find (Civil War Trivia and Fact Book by Webb Garrison) pointed out some wonderful tidbits that I thought inquiring minds might want to know.

1.  Only 28 percent of the 30,500 miles of railroads in 1860 lay in Confederate territory.

  

2.  The two warring capitals, Washington DC and Richmond, VA, are only 100 miles apart. 

3.  Seven states had announced their secession at the time of Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration. (Can you name them?**  See below.)

4.  86 percent of the United States’ manufacturing firms were located in the North.

5.  38 percent of the Confederacy’s population were slaves.

6. Diarrhea, including dysentery, was the most common ailment in the camps and claimed the lives of 44,000 Union soldiers.

7.  More than 68 American Revolutions could have been financed for the estimated cost of the Civil War.

8.  During the years of the conflict, 2,778,304 men were enlisted in all the branches of the Union forces.

9.  Four states were classified as “border states”, meaning they remained in the Union but had strong ties to the South. (Can you name them?*** See below.)

10. New Orleans was the Confederacy’s largest city, with an 1860 census of 168,000.

11. New York, with its 1860 population exceeding 800,000, was the North’s largest city.

12. Due to inflation in the Confederacy, the price of a pound of tea was $10.00 by the end of 1862.

13.  On New Year’s Day 1865, 55 percent of the Confederate fighting forces was listed as AWOL.

14. The tallest man in the Union forces was Captain Van Buskirk of the 27th Indiana.  Six feet, ten and one-half inches.

15.  The shorted man in the Union forces was a private in the 192nd Ohio.  Three feet, four inches.

16.  There were 33 states in the Union in 1860.

17.  In 1861, a Union soldier’s monthly salary was $13.

18.  As president of the United States, Abe Lincoln’s annual salary was $25,000.

19.  About 200,000 blacks eventually served in the Union army and navy.

20.  Union regiment, the First Minnesota, lost 82 percent at Gettysburg, the highest percentage of one-battle casualties.

21. By the war’s end, 12,912 graves had been filled at infamous Andersonville Prison. (total deaths is believed much higher.) 

22.  When Harper’s Ferry fell to Stonewall Jackson, he seized 73 cannon and 13,000 small arms from the arsenal there. And 10,000 prisoners.

23. Thirty six (36) horses were needed to pull the six guns of a standard field battery, three pairs in tandem per gun.

24.  Six Confederate generals were killed at Gettysburg.

25.  Black troops participates in 450 battles and skirmishes.

26.  The most popular handgun in the North with about 200,000 manufactured between 1860-1872 was the Colt Army and Navy revolver.

27.  The weight of a shell thrown by a 13-inch mortar (the largest in use then) was 220 pounds.

28.  Three of the 2,300 Federal chaplains, received the Congressional Medal of Honor.

I hope you didn’t mind a history lesson today! Which fact did you find the most interesting?

** South Carolina; Mississippi; Florida; Alabama; Georgia; Louisiana, and Texas.

*** Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri

A Bit of Father's Day Sentiment~Tanya Hanson

 Father’s Day has been around since 1910, when Sonora Smart Dodd arranged a celebration at a YMCA in Spokane, Washington. Her dad, a Civil War veteran, had been the single father of six. Hearing a Mother’s Day sermon in 1909, Sonora decided men should get the same honor. President Calvin Coolidge recommended the holiday in 1924 but stopped short of issuing a national proclamation.

But the celebration didn’t catch on readily, criticized by many as merely an excuse to replicate the commercial success of Mother’s Day. In 1957, Maine Senator Margaret Chase Smith accused Congress of ignoring half of our parents. President Lyndon Johnson passed the first presidential proclamation honoring fathers on the third Sunday in June (Sonora had initially wanted her father’s birthday, June 5) and finally, President Richard Nixon sighed the holiday into law in 1972.

As for me, sadly, I lost my dad in a car accident some 30 years ago, just a few months after my son was born. I like to think the angels part heavenly clouds once in a while so he can peek down and see how blessed I am.  Silly, but it gives me comfort. And among my greatest blessings is a hubby who’s a terrific dad and grampa. Therefore...

This poem is just too adorable not to share. Last year hubby printed it out and framed it for our son and son-in-law who have each given us a grandson

Enjoy Father’s Day! Oh, the photo isn’t anybody I know...(Dreamstime) but it so fits!    

                   

     A LITTLE FELLOW FOLLOWS ME

    A careful man I want to be,

    A little fellow follows me;

    I dare not to go astray                                            

    For fear he’ll go the self-same way, 

    I cannot once escape his eyes,

    Whatever he sees me do, he tries;

    Like me he says he’s going to be,

    The little chap who follows me.

    He thinks that I am good and fine,

    Believes in every word of mine;

    The base in me he must not see,

    The little chap who follows me.

    I must remember as I go

    Through summer’s sun and winter’s snow;

    I am building for the years to be

    That little chap who follows me.

www.tanyahanson.com