Historical Novel Society Conference 2019

The benefits of attending a writers' conference are numerous. It's a chance to reconnect with longtime friends and colleagues, to make new friends, to pitch book ideas--informally or formally--to editors from publishing houses familiar and not, to absorb the collective wisdom of writers at all stages of their careers, to hear the latest market news. Oh--and of course, to eat, drink, and be merry...for tomorrow, we must return to that manuscript!

HNS is an international organisation, with conference alternating between the US and the UK, and there's an Australasia one as well. I've attended UK as well as US conferences. This year we gathered at the Gaylord Resort and Convention Center in Maryland, across the Potomac River from Alexandria, Virginia, and quite close to Washington, D.C. Some members took advantage of the location to go sightseeing in our nation's capital. With  lifelong connections to the region, and relatives and friends in the vicinity, I didn't stray from the hotel until the conference ended.

My room's view of the ferris wheel & Potomac River

In the hotel's Atrium, replica of Old Alexandria--and massive window

There were extra pre-conference workshops on the Thursday. That evening was devoted to an opening cocktail reception and costume contest. As usual, those who came in period attire looked wonderful. I attended as Hedy Lamarr, costumed for her role in the film Ziegfeld Girl, which she was shooting at the time she co-invented spread-spectrum technology and frequency-hopping. Her experience making the film, and her reaction to her costume, are included in Beautiful Invention: A Novel of Hedy Lamarr. My efforts to recreate that gown couldn't match the exquisite Adrian design, or the excellence of the MGM seamstresses, but I did my best.

Hedy wore it better--of course!

Ladies in white: with debut author Finola Austin

Opening reception in the Pose Lounge atop the hotel

Having served on the Program Committee--no easy task--the line up of panels, workshops, skills demonstrations (sword fighting! wool spinning! period dancing!) and group discussions was no secret to me. I was frustratingly aware that whatever choice I made in a given hour, I was missing several amazing other options. I was involved with two panels myself, Silk Stocking Rebels: Writing STEAM-Powered Women (women of Science, Tech, Engineering, Arts, and Math), and Women of Washington. And I was co-leader for a Koffee  Klatch group chat Call off the Revolution! What-Ifs? that Would have Changed the Course of History. [Program Committee members weren't allowed to assess or approve the panels that they proposed, so I had no insider advantage to becoming a panellist!]

WRITING STEAM-POWERED WOMEN Panel

Nicky Pentilla, Mary Sharratt, Kate Quinn, Me

WOMEN OF WASHINGTON Panel 

Stephanie Dray, Stephanie Thornton, Me

I attended as many panels as I could, when not otherwise occupied. Most were on topics of interest, rather than craft, and all were well presented. Of particular usefulness, now that I'm writing another 20th century novel: You Mean it Didn't Rain that Day? The Perils & Pitfalls of Writing Modern History with Chanel Cleeton, Camille Di Maio, Renee Rosen, Stephanie Thornton, and Kate Quinn. My research incorporates so many primary and secondary sources, and all the newspaper and magazine articles about my characters.

The Friday night Hooch Through History is always a highlight, and this year was no exception--the theme was Revolution. And alcohol definitely fueled or consoled revolutionaries! Isobel Carr proceeded through her slides, and the hotel wait staff delivered the highly potent beverages in sequence, with an occasional amuse bouche.

Our lunchtime speakers, Dolen Perkins-Valez (Friday) and Jeff Shaara (Saturday), were eloquent and inspiring. I also attended the afternoon tea at which both responded to an interviewer's questions, and took questions from the audience.

M.K. (Mary) Todd has a terrific wrap-up on the agents and editors panel, and their views on the current market for historical fiction:  The State of Historical Fiction #HNS 2019. As I become aware of more, I'll add them here. Using the hashtag #hns2019 will bring up social media posts, and some great live-tweeting from the various panels. I've got so many pictures on my phone--the ones I took and ones shared or sent to me. I haven't yet  had a chance to review them all.

Along with 100 or so other authors, I participated in the Readers Festival booksigning event, and thoroughly enjoyed meeting the public and conference attendees who came.

At the Readers' Festival Booksigning, with Hedy

After the closing banquet, I was one of the professional actor/authors performing a staged reading of works by several revolutionary female playwrights, compiled by Program Chair Leslie Carroll and directed by Gillian Bagwell. At the conclusion, we were joined by banjo maestro Curt Locklear, and led the crowd in a rousing rendition of Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land."

With Leslie Carroll before the banquet

Scene from Mae West's play SEX, as prostitutes in a brothel

Me, Gillian Bagwell, Leslie Carroll, Leanna Renee Hieber

The full company: Teel James Glenn, Elizabeth Kerri Mahon,
Anne Easter Smith, Me, Gillian, Leslie, Leanna

The next event was Lady Baltimore's Ball, an after-party with period dances--reels and quadrilles--led by an expert in costume. And then there was an after-after party with my fellow performers and others who stayed up late because they couldn't bear for all the fun and fabulousness to end!

My adventures weren't yet over...a dear friend collected me and I spent a few days with her and her husband, whose marriage ceremony nine years ago took place at our lake house, and their darling dog Jasper (whom I hadn't yet met).

At the same time, my own darling dog Dot was completing her final session of Level Two Obedience, with my husband as handler. She and her classmates were working on their Downtown Dog skills, and walked along Main Street to our city's fantastic Independent Bookstore. Once there, I'm told, Dot walked right over to the "P" section in fiction--perhaps looking for my books? Good Girl!

After discussing my work-in-progress with editors, I intend to spend the summer working towards its completion. For discipline and self-imposed deadline I'll possibly rely on Camp NaNo. It's the July program sponsored by National Novel Writing Month/NaNoWriMo, which I successfully completed last November, writing 50,000 words in 30 days. Camp NaNo has a "set your own goal" feature that's more compatible with my life right now.

I came home to an abundantly blooming rose garden, and after a hosting an Open Garden for friends and locals, I plan to hide away at the lake and write. I have a few more author events scheduled, including a radio presentation, so I can't be a complete hermit!

Happy summer to you....

Hedy Lamarr as Actress, Inventor, Artisan--and Artifact

As a result of writing Beautiful Invention: A Novel of Hedy Lamarr, and as a collector of antique and vintage items, I've acquired several original artifacts associated with my protagonist.

One of the most intriguing is this metal boot- or shoe-jack. The letters of Hedy’s name are soldered to the frame, and each support bears half the year of its creation, 1940—the 19 on one side and the 40 on the other.

Although the provenance isn’t specific, it reportedly was made for the actress, who by 1940 had attained the peak of fame. But by whom?

One candidate for its creation is Hedy herself, because she was a maker. She designed her own jewellery and clothing, and mixed her own perfume by combining scenes she liked. Knitting and needlepoint were ways to keep occupied between scenes in her dressing room or trailer. She was a painter. She modeled in clay, making miniature animals to display in her dressing room. As described in the novel, she gave them to her Come Live with Me castmates as Christmas gift—Jimmy Stewart received a pig—and she accepted commissions. And she was a woodcarver, who specialised in making decorative doorstops covered in needlepoint or fabric. Her woodworking projects sometimes took place in the carpentry shop at her studio, MGM, where she could use a lathe.

Another even more likely candidate, and the one I chose for fictional purposes, is British actor Reginald “Reggie” Gardiner. He was her first Hollywood boyfriend and lover. 

Hedy with Reggie Gardiner

Hedy & Reggie at a film premiere

A skilled artist, he painted her portrait more than once, in oils and in watercolours. 

Reggie working on one of his Hedy portraits

After their initial romance ended, they remained very close before and after her various marriages, and they continued dating until he fell in love with the woman who became his wife. He built her coops for her flock of chickens and ducks, hutches for her rabbits, and constructed a swimming pool at one of her houses. Anyone who sees him portraying the quintessential, sophisticated, upper-crust Englishman in such films as Christmas in Connecticut or Everybody Sing! will be surprised by his non-theatrical pursuits. It would certainly not be out of character for him to have engaged in metal-work.

What was the significance of 1940?

It was a very busy year for Hedy, and not a happy one. She separated from her second husband, producer Gene Markey, and initiated a divorce—which had the potential to jeopardise the final adoption of their toddler son. In the midst of domestic turmoil, she was working on four major movies: Boom Town (with Spencer Tracy and Clark Gable), Comrade X (with Clark Gable), Ziegfield Girl (with Judy Garland, Lana Turner, and Jimmy Stewart) and Come Live with Me (with Jimmy Stewart).

During the final months of that year, appalled by the tragic German U-Boat attack on the children’s transport ship City of Benares, evacuating British children to Canada, she decided to put her knowledge of munitions to use against Hitler and the Nazis. She embarked upon her now-famous collaboration with George Antheil on the wireless torpedo, and the development of “frequency hopping” and spread-spectrum technology for the National Inventors Council.

It's impossible to know the origin of the bootjack, or why it bears the particular date. But it is an attractive—and potentially useful—household item.

Guest Blogging at A Writer of History

Today I'm featured on M.K. Tod's wonderful historical fiction blog, sharing some of my process as i wrote about Hedy Lamarr's life and times.

Transported to Hedy Lamarr’s Time and Place

Always a pleasure to stop by Mary's blog.

Beautiful Invention Gift Package Giveaway on Rafflecopter

To mark the official October 16th release of  Beautiful Invention: A Novel of Hedy Lamarr, I'm sponsoring a Rafflecopter giveaway from October 9-29.

Hedy was notable for wearing pearls--necklaces, bracelets, earrings, which are featured in many of her films and a majority of the glamour portraits of her created by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer.

In a fan magazine

Making friends during her War Bond Tour

For this sweepstakes, I've sourced a 3-strand pearl necklace similar to one she often wore. The necklace is 19 inches in total length. The pearls are genuine, and large.

GOOD LUCK to all entrants!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Hedy Lamarr returns to London: UK launch for BEAUTIFUL INVENTION

In 1937, Hedy Kiesler Mandl escaped from her husband and her beloved city of Vienna. She travelled first to Paris, and then crossed the Channel to England. In London, she checked into the Regency Palace Hotel, a few steps from Piccadilly Circus. At the time, it was the largest hotel in Europe--and quite luxurious.

Over time it grew increasingly rundown and even disreputable, but it remained a hotel until 2006, when the site was developed. Some of the original facade is intact.

The former Regent Palace Hotel in Piccadilly

Hedy returns to the hotel she occupied in 1937

Very little is left of the splendid interiors, but the site of the Atlantic Bar & Grill now houses Brasserie Zédel, and its Art Deco décor is restored to its former glory. On the day of the UK launch of Beautiful Invention, I was there for a celebratory lunch.

Entrance to the brasserie

Hedy probably dined here, when it was the hotel restaurant

Champagne on UK launch date

The celebration continued throughout the week, culminating at Fischer's in Marylebone, an Austrian restaurant. My meal there consisted of cuisine that Hedy knew and loved: wienderschitzel and Sacher torte!

Wienerschnitzel

Sacher torte, so named for Vienna's famous Hotel Sacher

When Hedy Was News: Press Accounts for August

2 August 1938

  

Charles Boyer & Hedy in Algiers

11 August 1942

Hedy and her co-inventor, composer/musician George Antheil, are awarded a  United States Patent for their Secret Communication System. The basis for wifi, satnav, and more.

Hedy & George Antheil

15 August 1938




Hedy loved ice cream



Hedy in Ecstasy--lying down!

Lying down again

And again!



 

22 August 1940

23 August 1941

Dorothy Kilgallen decides that a change in Hedy's hairstyle for H. M. Pulham, Esq. is newsworthy.

27 August 1939

 

Beautiful Invention Pre-launch happenings

For those who use a Kindle for reading books, or use the app on their tablet or phone, Beautiful Invention: A Novel of Hedy Lamarr is available for pre-order.

 

Pre-Order Beautiful Invention for Kindle and Kindle app

 

 

 Promo items arrive daily. ARCs (Advance Reader Copies) have gone out to reviewers and press.

On Twitter, I've been posting 1930s-40s news items about Hedy to correspond to #OTD (On This Day).

Bookstore appearances are being scheduled.

I do hope reader anticipation about the release is building. I know mine is!