Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    

Honestly, I don't think we tried to really capture with fidelity how people spoke then, mainly because to modern 
ears, I think it would have sounded overly-formal and often tedious. Let me tell you, reading newspaper articles 
from the 1890s is really HARD as a current-day reader. They are a wall of text, no paragraph breaks, long 
sentences, no "colorful" hooks, just the facts in a very stentorian tone.

We did talk before starting to write about other historical mystery series we'd both enjoyed (Ann Perry's Monk 
books, for example, and Kate Ross's Julian Kestrel books) and we both agreed that there's a tendency in this sort 
of genre fiction to have characters whose sensibilities are more "proto-feminist" or "anti-racist" than would be 
realistic.  Their ideas and actions are much more like what a more modern character might think/feel/say but toned 
down for the historical period the action is set in.

We certainly did try to capture some of the anti-Chinese racism in Portland, and many characters (who were not our 
protagonists) were probably more in keeping with the actual sentiments of the time period. The next book in the 
series is set at a paper mill where the owner has fired all his workers and replaced them with Chinese laborors 
who are paid much less, and we definitely have more of its plot related to those historical issues. 
  

    
Reading microfilm is particularly difficult. You just get
bleary-eyed. 
  

    
What made me crazy with microfilm  was scanning through it looking
for what I wanted.
  

    
Ugh. You are conjuring up bad memories of college term papers!
  

    
I'm curious about how the next books evolve. Was there ever a
resolution to Mrs Greenblatt? It feels like a very heavy-handed way
to keep the heroes apart.

Also, as you guys re-write, are you thinking about continuing the
series at all, or are the existing books as far as it will go?
  

    

We do have a third book outlined that brings resolution to the Libby/Peter storyline. We're hopng if we can sell a 
decent amount of the first two books that we can find time and energy to finish the third and poublish it, so we 
have a trilogy that tells a full story. If we lonly end up publishing the first two in the series, i'd probably 
email the outline of the third boook to anyone who asked nicely.
  

    

sorry, was typing fast, apologies for all those typos
  

    
I didn't realize there were only the two. Very much enjoyed the
first one.
  

    

I'm enjoing chatting about the book -- keep any questions coming! And let me
know if you have any questions specifically for my brother Joe, and i'll
make him give me the answer. 
  

    
One minor anachronism that I noticed. At one point the main
character is discussing the Kaddish (Jewish prayer for the dead) and
starts it off "yitgadal ve-yitkadash" (typing from memory, so may
have the exact transliteration). BUT, at that time, any Jew whose
family came from Eastern Europe would have pronounced the taf
differently: "yisgadal ve-yiskadash". The original pronunciation of
the letter in question was "th," but over time, it became "s" in
Europe, and "t" in the Middle East and Sephardic communities. The
modern Israeli accent uses the "t", and indeed, most American Jews
now emulate that accent. But, it's recent.

Of course, not sure how many readers would have tripped over that.
  

    

Oooh, good catch! I've actually heard it said both ways, even today. But I
didn't know that the "t" sound was more modern.
  

    
For American Yiddish-speaking immigrants from Europe back then, it
would have been all "s" when representing the taf (and a multitude
of accents, so the vowels could be just about whatever depending on
where in Eastern Europe).

There _is_ a "t" (tet) sound, but it's not part of the kaddish's
cadence.
  

    
(mim), I'm very much enjoying the book! One term that tripped me up
was "white slaver". I had never heard that term before. Thank you
for the explanation via text. I now know the Federal law was
originally called White-Slave Traffic Act of 1910 now referred to as
the Mann Act. I'm so steeped in stories about slavery in the
American South, I didn't put it together that white slavers are
human traffickers.

I'm always curious about names. Do you have any stories about how
you and your brother chose names for the characters? 
  

    
Great Question! The main character Libby, was actually named after
our Grandma (who she is based on). Our grandmother's name was
Lillian Selay, but the Selay was only because the family had changed
their name from "Seletzky" and since Libby can be a nickname for
Lillian, we basically took the name and gave it to our main
character. I think for other characters, we just batted around
ideas, and for incidental ones, we made them up ourselves if we were
the first ones writing a particular scene. I'll go ask Joe if  he
remembers any more details of us settling  on character names. 
  

    
As someone who knows absolutely nothing about fashion (most of my
clothing is from Duluth Trading) I appreciated all the detail about
Libby's dressmaking skills.  Did one of you have some experience in
that domain?
  

    

That's all Joe. He's a big fan of costumes and clothing trends through
history.
  

    
This just in, from  Joe:

"Just looking at your Q&A on the well. As it happens, grandma's
given name was Libby.--I mean, on her birth certificate. Later, her
mother clarified that she always meant grandma's name to be Lillian,
but they had asked her what she was going to to call the baby and
she told them Libby so that's what the nurse wrote down on the birth
certificate. We did not make up Libby."

In case it wasn't apparent, Joe is definitely the keeper of family
lore. 
  

    
<mcdee>, some bad news about Duluth.  Since opening their retail chain
their clothing has gone to total worthless in terms of duration.  I
wore a pair of pants I bought five or six years ago to the local
Duluth store, asked where I could find them, and the 20-something
clerk actually said, "we didn't make those".

I showed him the Duluth tag and he was very, very confused.
  

    

wrong topic, jet?
  

    
I mentioned Duluth Trading up above re: my lack of fashion sense. 
But as long as we're drifting - yes, quality has declined except for
the Longtail T-shirts.  Those have gotten better.  

We now return you to early 20th century Portland, Oregon, where no
one would ever go out on the street in a T-shirt...
  

    

Heh.... drift is fine, I just missed the mention above. Carry on :)
  

    
(It being a topic read by the public I wantedto water down any
 accidental promotion of a brand that has gone downhill.)
  

    
This was posted in the wrong topic:

Emily Gertz (emilyg) Thu 20 Feb 2025 (07:04 AM)

Mim, have you and Joe ever considered dramatizing the novel?
  

    
Oddly, we never have (even though Joe and our other brother David
write musicals together). I guess it never felt like there was much
of a market for historical mysteries on stage or film. At least not
ones like ours, which is pretty much a cozy. Now you have me
thinking, though... i wonder who our dream casting would be for
Libby and Peter. I'll ask Joe what he thinks. 
  

    
This just in from Joe (who has been following along with this
conversation):

"Certainly on the East Coast pie-in-the-sky discussions have been
about seeing the Libby seale Mysteries come to life on a screen (who
doesn't like to play that game?), but I think it'd need to be a TV
not a movie adaptation – mysteries are really hard to condense into
2 hours. A nice 6-episode Netflix series feels about right, each
book getting one season. (And period mysteries are now as rare as
they used to be..."Miss Scarlett and the Duke" on PBS is very
similar in era and tone.) Dream casting for Libby and Peter? How
about Hailee Steinfeld and Harris Dickinson (he's British but his
American accents are pretty spot on)."