Vanilla comes from an orchid?

When I came across the little known fact that in 1806 Charles Francis Greville had a  vanilla orchid bloom in his greenhouse at Paddington Square just outside of London, I had no idea what an important tidbit that was going to become for me. I had no idea that I would take that fact and run with it. Run with it for about

175, 000 words or so.  All I could say was who is Charles Francis Greville?  and Vanilla beans come from an orchid? Looking back now, I see it was fate that took me on a long journey of discovery from Google to The Gardener's Daughter . I was destined to write the story.

Anne Drake becomes Anne Blake

I had a starting point. Pouring over Jack Kramer's book, Women of Flowers, with all the beautiful illustrations and information, I found an artist, Anne Drake, that Mr. Kramer said little was known about and thought aha!,

she can be my format to create a fictitious female artist. I can fill in the blanks with a story about her life, artistry, and who knew what else.  When I was wandering in Googleville, however, I found that a great deal was known about Miss Drake and that she was indeed not going to be my heroine after all.  I had written a few vignettes by then using her name, so my lazy resolve was to change her last name to Blake from Drake and off I went again! Anne Blake and her father, George, were born.

Botanical drawings

My interest in botanical drawing is really where my thoughts about the story I was going to write began.  I have always loved the look of those drawings. When I started the project I knew little more than that.  The purpose of such drawings, I came to find out,was the identification of plants as they might be used by an apothecary or physician.  The lore of herbs was passed down with the pictures of the plants and their curative characteristics. Though it was often women who made these drawings, if they were not of noble birth or somehow connected to a male of some importance, the artist was either ignored or even ridiculed as the work was claimed to be too good to have been done by the hand of a woman. At best they were only able to sign "Anonymous". Until the time of Linnaeus and his identification premise came forth in the mid 18th century, there was no set rule for identification. Without cameras, botanical drawing was the only way to sort through the new discoveries rushing into England and the continent from explorations around the world.  It was the book, Women of Flowers  by Jack Kramer that opened my eyes to the history of botanical drawing and the hard trail these often unappreciated artists endured to practice their skills. It was the place my journey into writing would begin.

Diving In

I will not falter on my mission to have a new blog. I have discovered so many facts while I was researching for my book, The Gardener's Daughter. I would like to share them with you. I also hope to share the process which writing goes through to get from thought to hard copy. I have so much fun! If you are interested in the Regency period, this blog will have pages concerned with the subject. In addition there will be information about formatting, semicolons, author intrusion, and the likes as I think about sharing what I have learned. All the while the process has lead me to creating the story in the book. I hope to generate real interest in the period and the characters I have created.