With a thrill, I can now announce that "Lady in White" is available in print and e-book formats.
Print/Paperback:
Other E-Book Formats (iBook, Scribd, Kobo, Tolino, Nook,
etc.):
Saturday, August 5, 2017
Published At Last!
It's been a long, long road from the day I got interested in this 100-year-old courtroom drama. I've spent many hours seeking out untapped sources, uncovering rare documents, and pondering the events from a different perspective to come up with new theories on what really happened. With the encouragement of several friends, I pulled myself out from the slump of discouragement and rejection. Forging ahead fearlessly, at last it has happened.
With a thrill, I can now announce that "Lady in White" is available in print and e-book formats.
With a thrill, I can now announce that "Lady in White" is available in print and e-book formats.
Wednesday, July 26, 2017
Sources, Sources, Sources
Sure I could borrow photographs and images that I see floating around the internet. Pinterest! Wikipedia! Other blogs! But I have a code of ethics and I don't do that. If I can't cite the source, if I can't verify it's public domain, or if I can't get an affirmative permission from the copyright owner, I don't use it.
My book is in the home stretch -- the final week before it launches into the world. Here are 3 more photos that won't make it into the book because I could not find the source until this morning.
Miss Joan Sawyer was a nightclub owner, a suffragette, and an exhibition ballroom dancer in New York City. She is said to be the "other woman" who broke up Jack and Blanca's marriage. But is that really the whole story? I have some theories about that.
Today while browsing the Library of Congress archives online, as I often do on a Tuesday morning, I stumbled across an instructional manual on various trendy dance steps. The one-step and the maxixe are being demonstrated in photographs by the celebrity dancers of the day. Guess who is among them? Yup.
I've seen these photos of Joan Sawyer floating around on other blogs. Heck, I've used one in an earlier blog post here. I never knew the exact source. I could never verify the citation and, without that, I did not use them in my upcoming book. Well, that's OK. I have 34 illustrations already!
Hopkins, J. S. The Tango and Other Up-To-Date Dances a Practical Guide to All the Latest Dances, Tango, One Step, Innovation, Hesitation, Etc. [The Saal eld Publishing Co., Chicago, monographic, 1914] Pdf. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/14010455/. (Accessed July 25, 2017.)
My book is in the home stretch -- the final week before it launches into the world. Here are 3 more photos that won't make it into the book because I could not find the source until this morning.
Miss Joan Sawyer was a nightclub owner, a suffragette, and an exhibition ballroom dancer in New York City. She is said to be the "other woman" who broke up Jack and Blanca's marriage. But is that really the whole story? I have some theories about that.
Today while browsing the Library of Congress archives online, as I often do on a Tuesday morning, I stumbled across an instructional manual on various trendy dance steps. The one-step and the maxixe are being demonstrated in photographs by the celebrity dancers of the day. Guess who is among them? Yup.
I've seen these photos of Joan Sawyer floating around on other blogs. Heck, I've used one in an earlier blog post here. I never knew the exact source. I could never verify the citation and, without that, I did not use them in my upcoming book. Well, that's OK. I have 34 illustrations already!
Hopkins, J. S. The Tango and Other Up-To-Date Dances a Practical Guide to All the Latest Dances, Tango, One Step, Innovation, Hesitation, Etc. [The Saal eld Publishing Co., Chicago, monographic, 1914] Pdf. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/14010455/. (Accessed July 25, 2017.)
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
Research Maniac
I discovered this 1917 murder case from Emily Leider's
biography of silent film star Rudolph Valentino. Leider's book spends a few
juicy pages on a scandalous episode from his past. Before he was famous, when
he was just a two-bit tango dancer entertaining New York high-society ladies at
tea parties and gala banquets, Valentino danced with Blanca de Saulles. He
testified at Jack and Blanca's divorce hearing and left New York for Hollywood
soon afterwards.
Blanca gunned down her ex-husband in cold blood, in front of
witnesses. A jury declared her "not guilty." It all seemed so
bizarre. Unlike Lizzie Borden or even O.J. Simpson, there was no doubt that she
shot Jack. Yet she strolled away free and regained full custody of her young
son.
Their tragic, deadly love story had all the glamour of The
Great Gatsby and the Titanic. Yet
their names have been mostly forgotten. I felt there had to be more to the
story.
- What is the truth? What really happened?
- Who were these people? What sort of man was Jack de Saulles? Was he really a womanizing scoundrel who deserved what he got?
- How did the victim's public image turn upside-down so quickly? How did a popular ex-college football star transform into the villain of his own murder?
- What sort of woman was Blanca Errazuriz? How did a dainty, high society lady turn into a cold-blooded killer?
I started with historical newspapers. I pieced together a
timeline, and then I dove deeper. And deeper. And deeper.
Research is like archaeology--there is always more
underneath the surface. Even though I am not blood-related to anyone involved,
I used my genealogy skills to go far beyond the newspapers' narrative. I got
excited to scrape up rare photographs or forgotten documents that no other
researcher has bothered to find. I've spend hundreds of hours excavating
snippets on Google Books, on ProQuest, on WorldCat, and on Link+ to acquire
rare and out-of-print books. I corresponded with the Library of Congress, Yale University,
and the clerk at the courthouse where the trial took place. Thanks to
translation software, I could correspond with the tourist information bureau in
Blanca's hometown. Anything that had their name on it, I had to have it! By
now, I have filled a crate with books, 3-ring binders, and photographs.
What is my favorite piece? It's a tie.
One is a used out-of-print book published in 1916 (the year
before the shooting) where Jack wrote some first-person anecdotes about his
golden days as a college football star. Along with another football instruction
manual published 10 years earlier, these are Jack's own words unfiltered.
The other is when I emailed a reference librarian at the
Library of Congress about Blanca de Saulles, he retrieved a box of un-catalogued
photographs from off-site storage. A newspaper had gone out of business, he
wrote, and just dumped their collection of clippings and marked-up photographs
on the LoC. These are images that no one has seen in 100 years.
In the end, I never could decide if I was on Team Jack or
Team Blanca. While writing up the narrative, my loyalties shifted either way from
day to day. In the end, I had pity for both of them. It's such a heartbreaking
tale all around.
Monday, July 3, 2017
A Rare Portrait of Blanca
After her trial and acquittal, Blanca took her young son back to her hometown of Vina del Mar in Chile. Blanca married again on December 22, 1921 to Fernando Santa Cruz Wilson,
a senator in Chile's parliament who came from an illustrious family of
politicians.
Now as Mrs. Blanca Santa Cruz, she posed for a portrait. The Russian artist Boris Grigoriev came to Chile in the late 1920s to study at the art academy. His portrait of Blanca is remarkable for capturing the woman's contradictions of daintiness and deadliness.
The color palette is soft and light. She poses near a window. Her black hair is colored auburn. Surrounded by springtime colors, she wears a white blouse and a floral scarf draped softly around her neck. Yet her body is posed rigidly. Her spine is a sharp, slanted angle. Her arms are crossed and her elbows form another sharp angle. Her face is drawn in profile, not smiling but stern, and her eyes gaze off the edge of the canvas at what could be bitter memories.
The painting -- and other works by Grigoriev -- can be viewed on the website of the Museo Nacional Bellas Artes (National Museum of Fine Arts) in Chile.
http://www.artistasvisualeschilenos.cl/658/w3-article-40451.html
Now as Mrs. Blanca Santa Cruz, she posed for a portrait. The Russian artist Boris Grigoriev came to Chile in the late 1920s to study at the art academy. His portrait of Blanca is remarkable for capturing the woman's contradictions of daintiness and deadliness.
The color palette is soft and light. She poses near a window. Her black hair is colored auburn. Surrounded by springtime colors, she wears a white blouse and a floral scarf draped softly around her neck. Yet her body is posed rigidly. Her spine is a sharp, slanted angle. Her arms are crossed and her elbows form another sharp angle. Her face is drawn in profile, not smiling but stern, and her eyes gaze off the edge of the canvas at what could be bitter memories.
The painting -- and other works by Grigoriev -- can be viewed on the website of the Museo Nacional Bellas Artes (National Museum of Fine Arts) in Chile.
http://www.artistasvisualeschilenos.cl/658/w3-article-40451.html
Sunday, July 2, 2017
Getting Closer to Book Launch
I have the manuscript back from editing. My graphic artist is working on the cover design. I have written permissions for (almost) all the photographs that are not public domain. It's happening, folks!
Tuesday, May 23, 2017
Recent News in Chile
SANTIAGO, Chile — AgustÃn Edwards died on Monday on his farm in Graneros, about 46 miles south of Santiago, the capital of Chile. He was 89. He was a Chilean media magnate who published El Mercurio, the country’s most influential conservative publication and the world's oldest Spanish language newspaper.
His grandfather, Agustin Edwards MacClure, who founded the newspaper in 1900, was the brother-in-law to Guillermo Errazuriz Vergara (Blanca De Saulles's brother).
https://nyti.ms/2q76Cit
His grandfather, Agustin Edwards MacClure, who founded the newspaper in 1900, was the brother-in-law to Guillermo Errazuriz Vergara (Blanca De Saulles's brother).
https://nyti.ms/2q76Cit
Saturday, March 4, 2017
Journey to Publication
Years ago, I sent query proposals to a number of small-press publishers. Not one of them said yes to the project. Discouraged, I put it all in a (large) box, archived the files on my computer, and moved on. Life... Work... Family.... Other things took priority.
A couple weeks ago, I happened to go out with a friend for tea. I happened to mention the incident and my research. She was fascinated and it re-awakened my enthusiasm. When I dug up the dusty box from the back of the closet today, I saw all of the work I've done. Holy cow. The hours that I spent at libraries, on the internet, and corresponding with the Library of Congress. I am literally the only person who has collected all this stuff, from all these various sources, into one narrative. My MSWord doc has 10 single-spaced pages of bibliography and footnotes.
So it is with great excitement that I announce, I am pushing forward to self-publish the story. It will take some time to get the manuscript proofread, formatted, and prepared to upload to Createspace.
My goal is to have it available in time for the 100 year anniversary of the shooting - which is in August this year!
A couple weeks ago, I happened to go out with a friend for tea. I happened to mention the incident and my research. She was fascinated and it re-awakened my enthusiasm. When I dug up the dusty box from the back of the closet today, I saw all of the work I've done. Holy cow. The hours that I spent at libraries, on the internet, and corresponding with the Library of Congress. I am literally the only person who has collected all this stuff, from all these various sources, into one narrative. My MSWord doc has 10 single-spaced pages of bibliography and footnotes.
So it is with great excitement that I announce, I am pushing forward to self-publish the story. It will take some time to get the manuscript proofread, formatted, and prepared to upload to Createspace.
My goal is to have it available in time for the 100 year anniversary of the shooting - which is in August this year!
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