Since my blog post was due around Halloween, I pondered what I could write that was Halloween related. Then I remembered—I wrote a book of ghost stories! How could I …
More Research, Oh boy!
One of the things I enjoy most about writing is research. I really do love it and I want to make that perfectly clear, because the rest of this post …
Victorians on Vacation
The Victorian era was a time of sweeping change. Advances in science and medicine, industry, commerce, transportation meant life was constantly changing. One of the advances eagerly embraced was the …
150 Years of Impressionism
Bal du Moulin de la Galette, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Musee d’Orsay Everyone knows Paris is hosting the Olympics this summer but there’s another event Paris is celebrating this year. It’s the …
Research: Rabbit Hole or Hamster Wheel?
I hear so often about that research rabbit hole and I admit I have fallen in myself, usually when reading old newspapers. I’ll find so many fascinating stories, yet not …
Brain Matters
I turned in book 7 to my editor a couple weeks ago and I’ve been playing with ideas for the next book in the series. No matter how many books …
Florodora!
Double sextet from the 1900 New York production If you write historical fiction, you’d better like doing research. Fortunately, I love it! In A Newlywed’s Guide to Fortune and Murder, …
Queen Victoria’s Drawing Room
In my upcoming book, A Newlywed’s Guide to Fortune and Murder, Frances agrees to do a favor for a friend and present her niece to the queen. Court presentations ended …
A Not so Kinder, Gentler Time
I was a presenting author at Tucson Festival of Books a couple of weeks ago. The topics of the two panels I was on involved heinous crimes from history and …
Casting My Characters
I never feel that I know my characters very well until I finish the first draft of a manuscript. That’s one of the great things about writing a series. Characters …