Another book added to those now available in digital format, a Civil War historical, THE BARTERED BRIDE, set in Rowan County, North Carolina. It is available in Kindle and Nook formats.

Five Backlist Digital Releases

Google Alert and Facebook Friend, Lynn Mershon Calvin, tell me I will have five backlist books in the Barnes & Noble Nook eBook format released on July 15, 2011 -- available for pre-ordering now.

HARRIGAN'S BRIDE is a Civil War historical set in Virginia and North Carolina. One of my very nice readers named her little girl after the heroine in this book. Both the heroine and I were truly honored -- we got pictures and everything. (THE BRIDE FAIR, which has a Salisbury NC setting, is part of the Blogger Bundle Volume V collection -- see the column on the right. THE PRISONER, also with a Salisbury NC setting, hasn't been released in digital format.)

MEGGIE'S BABY and MOTHER TO BE are from the Navajo "Family Blessing" series.

THE LONG WAY HOME and LITTLE DARLING are from the Fort Bragg series. Another very nice reader once wrote to advise me that she was going out with a Fort Bragg paratrooper -- something she would NEVER have done if she hadn't read these books -- the 82nd Airborne owes me more than it knows. Besides that, influencing somebody's dating choices, even inadvertently, is a HUGE responsibility. Read LITTLE DARLING first. And be careful who you go out with, paratrooper or not.

I haven't heard yet whether the books be available in digital formats elsewhere--but then I didn't hear about the Nook thing either. Google Alert and real live person, Lynn, very helpfully found it for me. (Thanks, Lynn.)

If you haven't read them, I hope you'll consider doing so. If you have, I hope you'll consider doing so again.

UPDATE: These books are now available for pre-ordering on amazon.com in the Kindle format.

Interesting Find--A Maid's Memories of Biltmore House

My late sister-in-law once knew a woman who had worked as a maid in the Biltmore House in Asheville. I believe she was in her 90s at the time my sister-in-law knew her.

I recently happened upon a piece of notebook paper where my sister-in-law had written down what the woman had told her. There's no mention of the ocean blue walls but it looks as if the rest of what she said about the furniture was accurate:

"...Servant's Bedrooms--At any one time 80 servants might be employed at Biltmore, where they lived near their work stations in separate halls according to sex and "rank." The bedrooms along the corridor represented the private quarters for female members of the staff--cooks, house maids, and scullery maids. The rooms were airy and comfortable with split-seat chairs, chestnut dressers and wardrobes, and iron beds and washstands holding monogrammed chamber sets (pitcher, washbowl, chamber pot, slop bucket).

Service dress depended on the job and the time of day. The maids wore pink uniforms with white collars and cuffs in the AM and black with white trim in the PM. A cook's helper wore a red-checked pinafore and a dust cap..."

I've read that George Vanderbilt didn't like to actually see the staff, regardless of what they were wearing--hence the narrow passageway between the walls in the family's part of the house--sort of like a hall within a hall. I've also read this about one of our first ladies, only staff had to scurry to the nearest room and close the door when she came and went. (One can only assume that good servants will know their place, so of course they wouldn't mind.) (Yes, I'm rolling my eyes.)

It's been quite a few years since I've been on the Biltmore House tour -- and that was a Christmastime bus tour with my BFF, Jo. I never saw so many Christmas trees in my life. The time before that, my son was five. I distinctly remember him reaching across a velvet robe and giving a rare and, I expect, priceless world globe a big spin. The guard standing there probably does, too. I also expect that the globe was subsequently set farther back or removed altogether, once they understood what a temptation such things are to little boys, velvet rope or no velvet rope.

Maybe I should go to Biltmore again. To tell you the truth, though, while stunningly beautiful and worthy of being the backdrop for a number of movies, the experience always makes me feel sad. The place isn't in ruins, and yet it is--if that makes sense.

Might be a book in it, though....