A Ballad for Solvang: The Copenhagen Murders
Dreessen's Bakery, long since awake, busies and bustles, so many treasures to bake
Morning treats so luscious and fine, "Hygge!" he might exclaim, the Old one once called Gorm
Yet the charmed life is not so placid, on Solvang's sunny field
Treachery and conspiracy hang palatably in the air
Like the arresting, hovering waft of Ingeborg's chocolate cloud
Mystery slowly peels, here and abroad, giving way to scandal, someone's fate is already sealed
Dagmar Dreessen, Solvang sixth-gen, for little does she know
In her Danish ancestors' pioneer town, this California København
Intrigue decants and patiently breathes, like a Fergalicious, prodigious red
Notes of saddle, pepper, smoky plum and murder float on the wind, the piquant mistral of mystery is just starting to blow
*Solving Solvang: The Copenhagen Murders is the working title of author Jennifer Susannah Devore's sequel - a murder mystery mis-en-scène in Solvang, California - to her contempo novel, The Darlings of Orange County.
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Poppin' Open a Brand New Year
The New Year cometh! What's on your docket? What dragons will you slay, what cats will you herd, what other animal analogies will you concoct? JennyPop is ready for a new year! New Savannah of Williamsburg (Book IV finished and soon-to-be-published!), more Euro travel - likely with Tiny Mulder in-tow - and, as always, San Diego Comic-Con! Plus, whatever else may cross JennyPop's path. Who knows? Like Lemony Snicket's Violet Baudelaire, JennyPop's tying her hair in a ponytail and getting back to work after The Holidays, no matter the task ... as long as it involves reading, writing and bonkers-fun!
Happy New Year, kittens! Be courageous, be productive, be nice!
"Well, hey. I didn't spend all those years playing Dungeons and Dragons and not learn a little something about courage."
- Faulkner, The X-Files, "Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'" (S3e20)
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Powdered Wigs Frock Coats and Hamster Techno
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No Voltaire-styled, Twain-pithed or New Yorker-length posts here today. Simply a bit of fabulous, a smattering of so many things I love, all rolled into one savvy and styling auto advert: Rococo style, 18thC. sartorial flair, classical ballet, Baroque opera, a thumping techno beat, silk mules and, if you know my writings well, anthropomorphic animals in Vogue-worthy vestments.
Bravo, Kia Soul! Your funky, furry, Hail Fellows Well Met might get me into a Soul yet: black, to be sure. To boot, this is just the kicking beat I need to light that Sun King-caliber firework under my tapestry-festooned panier to keep working on Book IV of my Savannah of Williamsburg Series of historical-fiction novels: Savannah of Williamsburg: Washington's Folly and The French & Indian War, Virgina 1755.
Amusez-vous bien, mes amis!
An Open Christmas Card to Nordstrom, Grand Silver Dame of the Northwest
An open Christmas greeting to Nordstrom, in Haiku form:
Grand Dame of the North
Nordstrom brings festive Christmas
Thank you, Seattle!
Gary Oldman, Prada and Miss Hannah Hart Steampunk Power Their Way To Haute Couture
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"I still don't get it, Jennifer. What the heck is Steampunk?"
Voila, the de rigueur response from most when hit with a steampunk reference. Nebulous, querulous Steampunk. Briefly? 'Tis an anachronistically-based, alternate-existence, period-shod, fantasy world wherein steam power industry mixes bombastically with the funky, sharp vibes of modern technology ... plus a lot of airships, corsets, leather tophats, octopi (weirdly), 6" granny boots and fingerless gloves. "Quod the quod?", you cry. No worries. It doesn't actually matter. It's just a bit of stylish fun.
Steampunk is a weird and wild wedding of fashion, decor and technology flanked by the bridesmaids of science-fiction and fantasy. It's a mad, mad, mad, topsy-turvy swirl of Victorian-era British Colonialism, the American West, 19thC. Industrial Revolution and NASA. If Charles Dickens, Gail Carriger, Jules Verne, Walt Disney, Dr. Michio Kaku, Edward Gorey and Tim Burton co-recreated a Gilbert & Sullivan musical, you'd have Steampunk, sort of. Lift your opera glasses and have a peek at Xerposa: All Things Steampunk.
For a more intellectual exploration, take a few moments and treat yourself to Science Channel's Prophets of Science Fiction, specifically the Jules Verne episode. Dr. Kaku himself will help guide you through the leaves and pages of Verne's Victorian-futuristic literary themes.
Anyhoo, whilst Gwen Stefani's L.A.M.B., Vivienne Westwood, Betsey Johnson and Ralph Lauren have been
giving us teases n' tastes of the Victorian-fantasy look for years, Prada, with the help of Gary Oldman, Garrett Hedlund, Jamie Bell and Willem Dafoe, now gives us a four-course, sartorial feast with the Fall/Winter 2012 line of menswear ... steampunk inspired, clearly. After viewing the dapper, magically digital spectacle above, spot a bit o' ladies' steampunk through your spyglass at Clockwork Couture.
Need an altogether visual? Portlandia, as it does with all its targets, spoofs it best: Steampunk Convention. (A little too spot-on!) What's your fave steampunk mode: literature, film, fashion designer, photographer, or artiste otherwise? Share with Moi!
Meet the Characters George Washington Braddock and the Western Frontier
As of late, yours truly has been greatly distracted and engaged by the likes of my dear pal Miss Hannah Hart, ghostdame of the Hotel Del (her latest piece being a gracious and geeky ode to Charles Dickens, Mark Twain and Leonard Nimoy on the former's 200th birthday); my Darlings of Orange County and it's forthwith release; the launch of my website JennyPop.com and the great fun of being @JennyPopCom.
In those spare moments when I'm not Tweeting, blogging, editing, primping, ghosting and pirating, I have been dutifully and diligently researching, developing and gathering facts, dates, details and tidbits like a perky squirrel gathering perfect branches and bits of shiny, gold string for her new nest. Sans doute, this next installment of Savannah of Williamsburg is proving the most difficult yet of all past titles.