Welcome Brandon James

I know some of you might have forgotten the story I am writing on the side of this blog, The Sisters of Pine Haven but I have not. I may not be on top of it as much as I would like thanks to grad-school but I am still writing. And now I would like to introduce you to Brandon James...

Brandon James is suppose to play the much the same role as Colonel Brandon played to Marianne in Sense and Sensibility. I love Alan Rickman in this role and I keep picturing him as I write my character Brandon James.

I do hope you enjoy...

Found at That's Miss Kelly to You

By a fortnight end Nicholas returned to Pine Haven with Miss James and her brother Mr. Brandon James. Within an hour everybody could see that she was exactly how Nicholas, described her genuinely kind, warm hearted and very intelligent. She quickly passed Grandma Danford’s interrogation being from a family with wealth as long as Americans history and showing she had proper breeding and would be fine match for Nicholas. Grandma Danford was pleased that Nicholas had made such a match on his own and he was not being forced into a marriage of such good standing, as she had once thought would be the case. Soon all parties fell easily into conversation. All but Miss James brother Brandon James, he was stand-off-ish and not in a sweet awkward way that Ethan Foster was but in a rude awkward way. Emmy thought the way he stood against the wall hardly saying two words together it was as if he was judging everyone in the room.
          
That was not the case Brandon James was not used to this much talking going on at any given moment and did not know how to interact. Brandon had been from his father’s first marriage but his mother passed away when he was three trying to give birth to his younger sister. As his father could not properly tend to business and take care of the child Brandon was sent to live with his aunt and uncle in England. It wasn’t until he was twelve that his father had re-married a Miss Elliot that he came back to America and fully lived in his father’s house. But his heart still belonged in England which is why he went to Oxford for education and began to work for the British Ambassador. With the new Mrs. James his father had another son Caleb and his daughter Kathryn both much younger than him. Caleb and Brandon never saw eye to eye but Kathryn adored her oldest brother and loved all the stories of England, it was the closest she got to real royalty. What both his siblings didn’t know about Brandon was while he was at Oxford he fell in love but when his father met her, he forbid the marriage. The girl came from no standing her father worked in a factory and Brandon only met her by chance while she was visiting her brother who went to Oxford on scholarship and was studying to become a doctor. It would not do for a James to marry so far beneath him. For awhile Brandon and she wrote but one day the letters stopped he wrote her but got no response. When Brandon was finally able to track her where about down he found her six feet under a head stone; Brandon tried to get in contact with her brother but heard nothing. After that Brandon only found delight in his sister. Kathryn was a great harpist and when ever her brother looked sad she would go over and play a little music on her harp. Kathryn never knew why Brandon got a sad look on his face but knew her music would cheer him up. After their father passed away his father passed away Brandon tried to spend more time at the home of his stepmother but was also very attentive to business. Kathryn always thought her brother lived too quiet of a life and wished he would go out to parties when he was invited but parties were too much for him and he preferred to stay in his own home, minus when work took him to England.  


For more on the James family click here. 

Found at My Jane Austen Book Club

Fun Pins

Hello Readers,

I have discovered something new Pinterest.com  its not really new but it is new to me and I am love finding new images. I have boards on everything from "I like Pink", "Dreams for 'I do'" to "Coffee and Chocolate make me happy". 

When I Grow Up

When we are younger we have dreams of becoming doctor's or ballerinas. We all say "when I grow up I will be (fill in chosen profession)"... but when do we ever "grow up" in that context?

I think the first profession I wanted to be was a vet because I loved my dogs and I wanted to take care of other dogs. Of course my dogs were twelve pounds and also loved me and didn't mine me poking them or looking at there teeth. And I think I realized I that not all dogs were twelve pounds and being a vetI would have to deal with all types of animals and maybe not all of them would be so nice. So I walked away from the vet occupation. But I still love animals.

I think the next profession was a train conductor. When I was younger I watched "Shining Time Station" on PBS which is all about Thomas the Train and his friends. I loved it! I don't know if I ever asked or if I just knew my mom didn't have a lot of money back then so I never asked for a train set. I am not talking about electrical trains I am talking about a train set where you got to push the trains around yourself. But boy I wanted one... so what does a kid do... use their imagination of course! I took our movie booxes off the shelves and used the living room floor as my train track. I even remember my system. My Disney movie boxes were the engines because they were the biggest, the VHS we bought were the passenger cars, and the boxes that held recorded VHS stuff was the coal or freight cars.


Found at Justestuff.com

 During high school my mom, step-dad and I watched a lot of the show The West Wing and I wanted to be Donna. She was Josh's (Bradley Whitford) assistant and she she seemed so cool... she knew everything, she was depended on by every one but she didn't have any of the pressure to make the final call. I think even today I like that for a few months at my job I was a Manager on Duty and I hated those shifts because every one looked to me to make a call or be decesive... I am a great helper I am just not a manager. 

Donna played by Janel Moloney
Found at West Wing Beware

I have also wanted to be Abigail Chase from National Treasure. She worked for the National Archive and knew everything about everything, which seemed awesome (maybe if your a geek like me). This and my love for history might have been the reason I started pursuing my dual masters in library science and history. But after seeing the Library of Congress I knew I wanted to be able to walk through the Thomas Jefferson building every day... rather I was a tour guide, worked in the gift shop or actually worked as a librarian there.


A scene from National Treasure
Found at Aneesh Changanity

Found at Pinterest orginally pinned by Lindsey TePastte Kloeckner

This post isn't really about how what I thought I would be doing when I was young, that was to give you, my lovely readers some background into my life. I have wanted to be other things from TV producer to screen writer. I feel there are many paths I would like to take. I want to be an historian, I want to be an author, I want to be an archivist, I also want to go to culinary school and learn how to make fancy desserts like eclairs (I think there might be a fat kid in me wanting to get out). I guess my dream job is to be a full time mom and when my kids are at school take time write (mostly historical fiction, so I can use my love of history) and then bake yummy desserts on the side.

I guess one day I will have to stop saying "when I grow up" and actually do the things I dream about doing. When will stop saying I am a "wanna-be historian" or a "wanna-be writer" or a "wanna-be archivist" and just be those things. I don't know if there is an actual year or an actual date. I think I will stop saying it when I realize I am it. I am a writer... I may not be published but I write a lot and I will work on getting to the other two.



I found this while doing a google search for "historical research" thought it was funny.
Found at The Trades

  These are my thoughts for the day... hope you are pursuing what you want to be...even if its on the side from what pays the bills.

Love some Melodrama?

Found at Enchanted Serenity of Period Films

On Saturday Night I went to my friend's house and we watched North and South  a BBC miniseries based of Elizabeth Gaskell's love story. It is not about the Civil War as I orginally thought when my friend suggested we watch it. My friend told me it was mix of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens. I was intrigued to watch this because this friend does not like anything romantic so I was not going to pass up a chance to watch an historical romantic film with her but I knew nothing about it, and I don't really know Elizabeth Gaskell's writing but after watching this movie I am intrigued. Now if only it was winter break the next time I have free for fun reading. 

So the plot is a lot like like Pride and Prejudice...

Bessie Higgins
Found at Austenitis

Margaret Hale moves from her simple country village in the south part of England. A town she has romantic ideals about and cherishes in her heart to Milton a mill town (in the North, and completely different than the South) where she meets John Thorton. They immediately disagree and she's him really harsh, which I agree with. I mean the first time we meet him he punches a man for smoking in a factory. But John Thorton has a hard past. He has been working hard to get his family to the position it is in most of his life. Also smoking could cause the whole factory to burn down and its 100s of employees to die in the fire. So I guess reflecting on it, he harsh for a reason but it was little unsettling. Margaret has a hard time adjusting to this new life, she says even months after living there she makes wrong turns every where she goes. The people of Milton are proud and don't take charity even when starving. But she does make friends with Bessie Higgins, who you might know as Cassandra Austen from Becoming Jane. She is the daughter of Mr. Higgins who is trying to organize all the mill workers to unionize and strike. Of course the bosses (Thorton included don't want this and will use their power to stop it). Through out this time you see Thorton's budding feelings for Margaret, because she speaks her mind and stands up for what she thinks is right, ah women with independent thought are always attractive. The strike does happen but Thorton can't risk losing business just because he has no employees so he hires Irish men to come over and work. That only arises violence and in the sweep of things Margaret tries to calm the crowd and gets hit in the head with a rock.

Margaret defending Mr. Thorton
Found at Felice's Log

People, including Mrs. Thorton (Thorton's mother) sees Margaret defending Thorton as a public deceleration of her love for him. So the next day he goes over and proposes... and like in Pride and Prejudice he is turned down. But it is so melodramatic it is just great to get swept up in. 

Then like in the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice you see Mr. Thorton walk away replaying the past incident, upset at what has just happened. The next hour is very much the Charles Dickens side of the story seeing the aftermath of the strike and the violence and sadly a few good characters die and Margaret is thrown into controversy. Her long lost brother returns home to be with her ailing mother and when he tries to sneak out of Milton people see her embrace him and not knowing she has a brother think she is scandalous. They also think she was involved in a murder, yeah its kind of complicated but I don't want to give away any spoilers. But when Margaret's name is brought up in controversy Thorton does what he can to protect her name from being spoiled. Also through some twist of the, Margaret ends up with a great deal of fortune and owning the mill Thorton has leased through her godfather Mr. Bell (yeah another complication) but like any good love story the couple ends up together happily.

Beside the melodramatic movie and the blend of a Jane Austen love story and the plight of the working man. I liked how accurate the movie was. In my history classes I have read stories about the mill factories being dangerous places to work. But this kind of brought it more to life. When ever there is footage of the mill factory we see cotton flying around. You see the danger of the working conditions that these mill workers have. And even Bessie through out the movie as a constant cough and complains it is a cold but really it is cotton particles clogging her lungs. These scenes are greatly shot. 

I also have to give a shout out for the great costume design. Rather they are the poor workers, to the high class Thortons and the in the middle the Hales every outfit captures the attitude of the character. 

Found at Felice's Log

To see more on this mini series check out these sites...
North and South
Felicie's Log
Period Drama.com
Enchanted Serenity of Period Films