Research Tiem. (you can't make me!)

[burntcopper]

:sigh: nano approacheth. Cannot yet decide which one to do of the Upstairs-Downstairs, Psycho girl, and Girl in the army. Really to do more research to see which one's the most viable at this point, since research sparks plot bunnies and also tells you what you can and can't do.

Upstairs-Downstairs, I need to check out 1920s, valet stuff and also how big houses of the time operated. I don't need too much on this since theoretically the main focus is on the couple, but background stuff and any details (eg, this tech wasn't used). So far bits to tweak in the plot are how wet the valet character is.

Psycho Girl and Girl in army - I need to re-read the Rifles and Peninsula War books I have access to, possibly re-watch a bit of Sharpe and re-read Monstrous Regiment. Which I've started but there are shiny new things. What I also want to find is stuff on women in the military, but the main problem I've come up against is that most of the material I've found is on the American Civil War (understandably because it's more recent and better documented). Not helpful, since it's a good couple of generations later and on another continent. Not to mention there will be plenty of wives and/or girlfriends floating around camp. Sir Terry has said it exists. He's read it. Where the hell does one find it? Any recs? Bits to tweak : Psycho Girl needs to be more off-kilter. Girl in army : more banter, less overt romance. And need to figure out precisely what the timespan is - I think I want her to join up at 17/18, but the question is also how old people think she would be when dressed as a boy.

Problem facing this : I'm behind on my tv (3 eps of Big Bang Theory, Merlin + Secrets and Magic, and catching up on Warehouse 13 and FlashForward. also there is SGU evaluation to be done. And new Jane Austen on the BBC. Not even thinking about Glee, Better off Ted and Burn Notice at this point - I think that'll have to wait until post nano at this rate) Unseen Academicals arrived and I've got two chapters in so far.

Comments

[gmh.livejournal.com]

Sir Terry has said it exists. He's read it.

Might be an idea to ask him - he and Rob are pretty good at answering emails.

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

where does one find his email? direct message on twitter?

[gmh.livejournal.com]

The two I can remember off the top of my head are:

tpratchett@cix.compulink.co.uk (which I *think* stopped working in ~1996)

tpratchett@unseen.demon.co.uk (still works as far as I know, but...)

Colin owns the domain terrypratchett.co.uk and is a wonderful person, as I'm sure you know.

Twitter might be just as effective as the above, mind you.

[xenaclone.livejournal.com]

>Until the twentieth century, women were excluded from war in Western cultures because they were thought to lack strength and aggression and because social attitudes required them to take on a caring and nurturing role. Those women who did want to fight had to disguise themselves as men and some managed to avoid detection for long periods. Types of dress could hide the female form; medical inspections upon enlistment were rare; long hair was not uncommon; armies often contained boy soldiers with their lack of facial hair and higher-pitched voices; and
personal hygiene habits were such that washing was not frequent. Discovery usually occurred as a result of illness or wounds. Trooper Christiana ‘Kit’ Welsh’s identity was revealed after she was seriously wounded at the Battle of Ramillies in 1706. Phoebe Hessel, 5th Regiment of Foot, was unmasked after receiving a bayonet wound at the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745.<

http://www.amazon.com/Bold-Her-Breeches-Pirates-Across/dp/0044409702

http://www.cindyvallar.com/womenpirates.html

http://www.amazon.com/Seafaring-Women-Adventures-Stowaways-Sailors/dp/0375758720/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b

http://historyofwomen.org/crossdressers.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-dressing [some examples at the bottom]

Hope that helps

XC

[xenaclone.livejournal.com]

Awesome life follows...

Julie d'Aubigny, "La Maupin" was a 17th century duellist and opera singer. She was raised by her father, who taught her to fence. At age 15, she seduced his employer, the Comte d'Armagnac. At 18, she escaped Paris with a young man and ended up in Marseilles, where she earned money by fencing (in male clothes) and started to study singing at a music academy. She then tired of her beau and seduced a nun. This resulted in a trial (in absentia) where sieur d'Aubigny (mentioning her true gender was a bit too scandalous) was condemned for kidnapping a novice, body snatching, setting fire to the convent, and failing to appear before the tribunal. She was later pardoned by the king and ended Paris again, at the age of twenty, where she was hired by the Paris Opera as one of the first mezzo-sopranos. She then stayed in Paris except for a short trip to Brussels to escape the law (she had broken the duel edict when fighting for a pretty girl she met at a royal ball). In Brussels she had a affair with Maximilian Emanuel, the Elector of Bavaria (one of the German princes of the Holy Roman Empire). She came back when the king pardoned her (yes, again). She died in 1702. Yes, this is true.

[xenaclone.livejournal.com]

At the risk of overdosing you:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Barry_surgeon

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

Pip, you have a scary amount of knowledge. or better google-fu.

[taraljc.livejournal.com]

If you need research book recs for Upstairs Downstairs, lemme know? God knows a massive chunk of my library is life in service from Victorian through the 1960s.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

The Women's Battalions of Death during WWI in Russia, after the February Revolution of 1917! (The only thing my Russian Revolution class has been good for is giving me that name. Say it a few times. Women's Battalion of Death.)

Of course, that's Russia and even further in the future, but still, WOMEN'S BATTALION OF DEATH. Okay, I'm done now.