Those Exciting Edwardian Women: Guest Post by D. E. Ireland

Today I welcome D.E. Ireland, a team of award-winning authors, Meg Mims and Sharon Pisacreta. Long time friends, they decided to collaborate on a mystery based on George Bernard Shaw’s wonderfully witty play, Pygmalion, using all his beloved characters, including Eliza Doolittle, Henry Higgins, and Colonel Pickering. Sharon and Meg both live in Michigan, have patient husbands, brilliant daughters, and share a love of good books, tea and history. Their first book in the series, Wouldn’t It Be Deadly, was a 2014 Agatha nominee for Best Historical Mystery. For more information, check out their website.


D. E. Ireland:
Those Exciting Edwardian Women

The beauty of writing a book set in 1913 is that it serves as a bridge from the privileged world of the Edwardians to the upheavals of the 20th century. Although the Edwardian era officially began with Queen Victoria’s death in 1901 and ended in 1910 with the death of King Edward VII, the years 1910-1913 seem little more than an extension of the Edwardian period. It is not until the outbreak of WWI in 1914, that radical social change is visibly seen. By the time ‘the war to end all wars’ ended in 1918, the world was a much different place. We find writing about this time period fascinating – especially for our female characters.

In Move Your Blooming Corpse, we included two groups of Edwardian women with totally different aims: the Gaiety Girls who took to the stage, and the Suffragettes who took to the streets in political protest. Gaiety Girl Diana Price kicks off the deadly action in our second book by being too beautiful – and too curious – for her own good. And we introduce suffragette Sybil Chase to our permanent cast of characters. Engaged to marry a Scotland Yard detective (who also happens to be Eliza Doolittle’s cousin), Sybil manages to stay one step ahead of the arresting police during her own political protests… at least so far.

Gaiety Girls – Beginning in the 1890s, pretty young women looking for an exciting career found work as chorus girls in London’s musical theater world. Because they were showcased at the Gaiety Theatre, these women became known as Gaiety Girls. Unlike the actresses who appeared in earlier burlesque shows, the Gaiety Girls were viewed as respectable young women. The rich men of London flocked to their performances, waiting eagerly outside the theater afterward for their favorite chorus dancer. Their admirers grew so plentiful, the term ‘Stage Door Johnnies’ was coined.

Both men and women looked upon the elegant Gaiety Girl as a feminine role model. The top clothing designers of London created costumes for their shows, turning the Gaiety Girls into style icons. Photographs of them in their latest outfits became a staple of fashion periodicals. Many of these young women went on to have successful acting careers; one even became a member of Parliament. But marriage was still the key to social mobility, and many Gaiety Girls married aristocrats.

Although titled families were often less than thrilled by such marriages, several Gaiety Girls married not once – but twice – into the peerage. One of them, Denise Orme, became wife to a baron, and later a duke. And no Gaiety Girl was photographed more than Gertie Millar. The beautiful singer/dancer married composer Lionel Monckton, who wrote many of the shows for which she became celebrated. Following his death, the irrepressible Gertie went on to become a countess when she married the Earl of Dudley. The Gaiety Theater was demolished in 1903 and rebuilt in a new London location. It continued to provide a showcase for the beautiful Gaiety Girls until it finally closed in 1939.

Suffragettes – Women began campaigning for the right to vote before Queen Victoria sat on her throne. Social reformer Richard Pankhurst tirelessly fought for many liberal causes, but it was his wife Emmeline, along with their daughters Christabel and Sylvia, who became the leading figures of the suffrage movement. In October 1903, Emmeline formed the Women’s Social and Political Union, which quickly gained notoriety for its extreme civil disobedience. This October, Meryl Streep will portray Emmeline Pankhurst in the film Suffragette.

The militant protests of the suffragettes caught the world’s attention: chaining themselves to the railing at No. 10 Downing Street, smashing windows, arson, and disrupting political meetings, even in Parliament. English society was forced to take sides, especially after the tragic death of Emily Davison, who deliberately ran onto the racetrack at the 1913 Derby and was trampled to death. In our second book, we utilized the true copycat incident of Harold Hewitt, a supporter of women’s rights, who rushed out onto the track a few weeks later at Royal Ascot. Although Mr. Hewitt survived, Emily Davison did not, and, her funeral prompted thousands of suffragettes to follow the hearse through London’s streets.

World War I put suffrage on hold. While soldiers fought on the front lines, women contributed to the war effort by taking on jobs normally held by men. It was their stellar performance in shouldering these wartime responsibilities that gained widespread respect for the suffrage movement. The U.S. passed full voting rights to women in 1920, and England passed full rights in 1928. The struggle took far too long, but was well worth the fight.

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This is only one stop on the MOVE YOUR BLOOMING CORPSE Mystery Virtual Book Tour. For other stops on this tour, CLICK HERE. You can also read more about Eliza and Higgins in WOULDN’T IT BE DEADLY, the first book in the St. Martin’s Minotaur mystery series.

Partners in Crime: Two Heads are Better, D.E. Ireland

Today I have a new entry into the Partners in Crime series on Mystery Fanfare. Two award-winning authors, Meg Mims and Sharon Pisacreta, have teamed up as D.E. Ireland for the Eliza Doolittle & Henry Higgins mystery series for St. Martin’s Minotaur. Their first book, Wouldn’t It Be Deadly, is now available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Meg and Sharon are sharing how they collaborate – and that two heads are indeed better than one. 

D.E. IRELAND:
TWO HEADS ARE BETTER

First off, we are long-time critique partners and college friends. We decided long ago to find a project to collaborate on together, but marriage, children and life put that on hold until one day, when Meg was driving to visit Sharon…

“I’d popped the My Fair Lady soundtrack CD into the car’s slot, singing along since it’s one of my favorite movies. And then, I was hit with “What if…?” BINGO! Once I arrived at Sharon’s house on Michigan’s west coast, I mentioned the idea – and we both thought it was the perfect premise.”

What followed was a ton of research. Although My Fair Lady served as inspiration for the series, we used George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion as our working model. Fortunately, the play was in the public domain.. Those familiar with both My Fair Lady and Pygmalion know they differ somewhat. But Shaw later added scenes such as the climactic one at the ball in a later reworked edition of the play, along with plenty of appendices for us to trawl. Of course, we had a head start on bringing to life the beloved characters of Eliza, Higgins, Pickering, Mrs. Pearce, the Eynsford Hill family, and Henry’s mother Mrs. Higgins. We did have to create backstories for each character including birthdays, education, siblings, parents, etc.

Then we started to consider the post-Edwardian world of Pygmalion. This involved intense research of the era, including famous figures, events, fashion, and even foods. We read the play many times, as well as anything Shaw had ever written about his characters. At this point, we chose to take some artistic license since our future plans for these characters may differ from how Shaw imagined them.

When it came time to plot the first book, Wouldn’t It Be Deadly, we did not have to look any further than Shaw’s play. In a later revised edition, the playwright included the famous scene at the ball where Eliza must pass herself off as a duchess to the Hungarian phonetics specialist. The Hungarian boasts to Henry Higgins that he makes his clients pay for more than just speech lessons. Perfect. Here was a character who dealt in blackmail, and blackmailers are often murdered by one of their victims.

We also decided that Eliza should make good on her threat in the play’s final act to teach phonetics. Having her become the blackmailing Hungarian’s assistant worked into the set-up nicely. But who was the murderer? That called for a bevy of suspects, each with their own compelling stories. As with all mystery plotting, this was followed by alibis, red herrings, clues, etc.

Once we had a polished finished manuscript, it was absolutely loverly to snag an agent who offered representation three hours after submitting a query, and who sold the two-book proposal to St. Martin’s in three weeks! Our second Eliza and Higgins pairing, Move Your Blooming Corpse, will be out in 2015.

Since we’re both research hounds, we split topics to save time. We’re also spelling and grammar sticklers, and work together on checking, double-checking and then triple-checking throughout our manuscripts. At the very end, we do a “read-aloud” marathon via telephone before submitting the final manuscript to our editor. This takes days, and it is fortunate we have been friends so long, otherwise we might never get through the process without drawing blood.

Indeed this literary partnership works because Meg and Sharon’s friendship began decades ago in college. “Even more important,” Sharon says, “is that we have been each other’s critique partners for twenty years while we worked on novels we wrote separately. After such a long period of time, we know each other’s strengths and weaknesses , along with understanding the other partner’s writing voice.”

Unlike some writing duos, both Meg and Sharon are involved every step of the way when writing these books. This includes plotting, first drafts, and as many revisions as necessary. Also, both must agree and approve literally every word that goes into the final manuscript. So while it is comforting to have a partner to commiserate with when the plot becomes challenging, or promotional efforts threaten to become overwhelming, it is not easy. And while two heads can be better than one, it is not for the faint of heart. But if you and a writing colleague have enough patience – and a sense of humor – you may want to consider a collaboration in your writing future.