Gifing it up

By way of an experiment, I pulled together some gifs from the Gorongosa wildcam project I mentioned previously.

I think they came out rather good.

Shiny!

Alongside the HNS Editor`s Choice logo, I get to add another shiny logo to THE JESUIT LETTER, courtesy the Historical Novel Society reviewing & liking my book!

Here they both are!

Editor's Choice

Great news to make even a dreary Monday shine!

The Historic Novel Society has reviewed The Jesuit Letter

and selected it as an Editor's Choice!

Read the review!

In addition to the snazzy logo, this makes The Jesuit Letter eligible on the long-list for the 2016 HNS Indie Award!

I know, way too many exclamation points for a Monday morning...but how often does this happen with a debut novel!

Thank you HNS!

“By plain tooth and nail”: Bear-baiting in Elizabethan London

This a copy of an article I wrote for English Historical Fiction Authors, a blog with an absolute fabulous collection of articles on just about any era you can contemplate. I am appending a copy here, but I urge you to drop by EHFA Blog and check out their tremendous collection of articles!  

If you glance at the famous Visscher's Panorama of London from 1616, you will see, tucked into the foreground of the picture, on the south bank of the Thames to the left of London Bridge, a pair of octagonal buildings. These are the now famous Globe Theatre and its less-famous but almost equally popular neighbour, the Bear Garden, also known as the Paris Garden.

The Bear Garden was a bear-baiting ring.

Blood sports were popular with the Elizabethans. Bear-baiting stood alongside theatre as a choice entertainment spectacle, alongside other animal blood “sports” such as bull-baiting, badger-baiting, rat-pits and cock-fighting.  All of these activities, to modern eyes, were inhumane, cruel and vicious bloodsports that inflicted pain and suffering on multitudes of animals, for the amusement of paid spectators.  And yet, they were immensely popular.

Bear-baiting “performances” were held seven days a week, including Sundays, a fact that often raised the ire of the church and the London Aldermen. The bear-baiting ring consisted of a design not very different than that of the London theatres – an octagonal ring with tiered galleries, surrounding a fenced in “yard” or enclosure. Costs for entry was a penny for the bottom tier, two pennies for higher tiers. At the centre of the ring a bear, chained to a post, would be placed. Dogs, usually large English mastiffs, would be released into the yard to fight and attack the bear.  The “performance” would continue until the bear was exhausted with fresh dogs replacing the spent, injured or dead ones. Bears were valuable investments for the impresarios operating the bear-baiting rings, so care was generally taken that the bears not be killed, although in no case was the treatment even remotely humane by modern standards. Teeth were filed short, to reduce injuries to the dogs. Blind bears were whipped to amuse the crowds.

Queen Elizabeth was quite taken with bear-baiting, staging it regularly at the enclosed tiltyard at the palace of Whitehall, most notably for the French Ambassador in May, 1559. The ambassador was so taken by the spectacle, he and his retinue promptly headed over to Southwark and the public bear-baiting the very next day.

The Earl of Leicester, hosting Elizabeth’s Summer Progress at Kenilworth Castle in July, 1575, brought in 13 bears and innumerable dogs to provide a bloody afternoon of “entertainment” for Elizabeth and her Court. By all accounts it was a rousing success with “fending & proving, with plucking and tugging, scratching and biting, by plain tooth and nail on one side and the other, such expense of blood and leather [skin] was there between them, as a months licking (I think) will not recover” (from Robert Laneham's Letter).

Londoners flocked to the rings and certain bears soon achieved a modest level of “fame”, accompanied by nicknames such as Harry Hunks, George Stone, Ned Whiting and Harry of Thame. The bear most familiar to modern audiences is Sackerson, who was highlighted in William Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor

Slender:   ….Why do your dogs bark so? be there bears i’ the town?
         

            Anne:  I think there are, sir; I heard them talked of.   
     

Slender:  I love the sport well; but I shall as soon quarrel at it as any man in England. You are afraid, if you see the bear loose, are you not? 
    

             Anne:  Ay, indeed, sir.   

Slender:  That’s meat and drink to me, now: I have seen Sackerson loose twenty times, and have taken him by the chain; but, I warrant you, the women have so cried and shrieked at it, that it passed: but women, indeed, cannot abide ’em; they are very ill-favoured rough things.

It would be nice to think Shakespeare had the bears of Southward in mind when he penned one of his most famous stage directions “Exit, pursued by a bear” in A Winter’s Tale.

Aside from mentions in plays and the general shape of the performance venue, bear-baiting and the Elizabethan theatre crossed over in several areas.  Philip Henslowe, who built and owned The Rose theatre (the third of the permanent playhouses erected in London, and the first in Bankside) also dabbled in bearbaiting from 1594 onwards. In 1604 Henslowe purchased the position of “Master of Her Majesty’s Game at Paris Garden” and in 1613-14, he and his partner tore down the Bear Garden and replaced it with the Hope Theatre, a dual purpose playhouse / animal-baiting venue, although it soon became used primarily for bear-baiting and never really lost it’s Bear Garden identity in the eyes of Londoners.

Bear-baiting and other animal blood sports continued as a spectacle both in London and across England (and a number of other European nations). Bear-baiting as entertainment was not without its detractors. The Puritans in particular were hostile to the entertainment, although they were equally hostile to almost all other types of recreation. Only a handful of commentators expressed revulsion at the activity.  It was finally brought to a halt in London in 1655 under the munificent Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell.  Cromwell’s appointed “Major-Generals” were instructed to “encourage and promote godliness and virtue” in their roles.  As a result, Colonel Thomas Pride raided the Bear Garden at Bankside, personally killing all the bears and ordering his troops to wring the necks of the gamecocks across London. This was in addition to shuttering the theatres, closing ale houses and generally working to surpass “mirths and jollities” across the nation.

One prominent critic mused that the bear-baiting was ended by Cromwell, but not because of the vicious cruelties inflicted on the bears and the dogs, but rather because it gave to much pleasure to the spectators.

The ban on animal baiting of all types was a short-lived one, as it resumed with the Restoration. Samuel Pepys famously recorded a visit to the Bear Garden / Hope Theatre in 1666 deeming it "a rude and nasty pleasure."  The last animal baiting recorded at the Bear Garden was in 1682. Bear-baiting, bull-baiting and other activities, though they waned in popularity in the 17^th century, were finally ended and utterly banned in 1835 with the timely passage of the Cruelty to Animals Act.

The Bear Garden is commemorated now with a long narrow lane named for it, running towards Bankside and the Thames River, a block from the reconstructed Globe Theatre.

No bears are now in evidence.

Second!

Second Place!

As mentioned in earlier posts, my novella BLACK DOG was entered into Inkitt's "Reclaim Time" story competition.

I found out this morning via email that it has placed SECOND in Inkitt's historical fiction competition, a fact that fills me with excitement as I always have a difficult time judging and assessing my own work.

Thank you editors of Inkitt and a special thank you to everyone who took the time to read, vote and review my novella.

If you enjoy Elizabethan-era back-alley skulduggery, then go have a read!!

http://www.inkitt.com/stories/15411

"No one wants to run afoul of London’s most notorious prison rooker, the Black Dog. Now Kit Tyburn must pursue his secrets to free his friend, but you don’t stalk the Black Dog without consequences…."

Dark and Kind of Stormy, but in a good way...

For the darkest & stormiest of nights...

As bad openings for a novel go, this one was epic.

"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents — except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.”

Out of this breathless torrent of immortal words, sprang the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction contest. The competition challenges writers to compose THE BEST bad openings to imaginary novels (across any genre).

Here's one of the Dishonorable Mentions for Crime/Detective:

I knew that dame was damaged goods when she first sauntered in, and I don't mean lightly scratched and dented goods that a reputable merchant like Home Depot might offer in a clearly marked end display sale; no, she was more like the kind of flashy trashy plastic knockoff that always carries a child-choking hazard that no self-respecting 11-year-old Chinese sweat shop kids would ever call theirs. — Tom Billings, Minneapolis, MN

and one more, from Dishonorable Mentions, Historical Fiction:

The year was 1792, and the French Royal family was like a well-watered topiary: lush, widespread, and in need of a good pruning. — Arch Robison, Champaign, IL

Go to http://bit.ly/1igIxRo to bask in the glorious prose that is the #BulwerLytton contest winners!

VOTE!!

I've got my novella BLACK DOG entered into Inkitt's "Reclaim Time" story competition! It has previously been selected an Inkitt EDITOR'S PICK.

If you enjoy Elizabethan-era back-alley skulduggery, then click on over, have a read and, MOST IMPORTANT, cast a vote for it!!

All Votes need to be in by Sept 24th, so we are down 'to the wire"!

Only the top 10% of voted stories go into the Editor's judging round. I only need another 2 or 3 votes to reach that judging threshold.If you can help get me into the top 10%, it would be very appreciated!

http://www.inkitt.com/stories/15411

"No one wants to run afoul of London’s most notorious prison rooker, the Black Dog. Now Kit Tyburn must pursue his secrets to free his friend, but you don’t stalk the Black Dog without consequences…."