Victorian Games

OK, we all know Victorians were into games – cards, croquet, tennis, you name it, they did it, invented it, or expanded upon it. Modern poker comes from the American West, as does the precursor of Pinochle, Bezique.
But the games they really excelled in was one of status. The upper class may have been involved [...]

Making a household name for yourself

Well, Lord Stanley certainly went about it the right way. The Stanley Cup finals are on, featuring my Ottawa Senators against the Anaheim Ducks. (Oh, sorry, I’m talking about ice hockey.) So I figured this was a perfect time to discuss our Governor-General, The Earl of Derby (Lord Stanley of Preston).
Sir Frederick Arthur Stanley, 1st [...]

Our Pictures, and Andersonville Prison

Last year after RWA’s national conference in Atlanta, I took a tour of Andersonville National Historic site, named for the infamous Civil War prison. I meant to blog about it earlier, along with creating a web page of pictures, but the way life gets in the way—well I didn’t figure out how to do it [...]

Cutty Sark

The world’s sole surviving extreme clipper, Cutty Sark was built in 1869, and launched November 22. In 1951, Prince Philip took possession of it on behalf of The Cutty Sark Society. The Society was formed by Frank Carr, Director of the National Maritime Museum, and patronised by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh (Prince Philip).
Today, a [...]

The Internet

I probably blogged about this before, and will no doubt do so again, but I once more feel the need to say how convenient the internet is to research. Most non-students don’t like Wikipedia, but I adore it. OK, I admit to double checking those facts once I find what I’m looking for, but I [...]

Goals Redux

Two weeks ago (ok, ok, FINE! Closer to 3) I posted a blog on how I hadn’t done on bit of my 2007 goals. I can now safely revise that.
The first of our (now) 4 part Victorian Erotica is finished. Done. Complete. *Sigh*We’ll be sending it out this week. *Nerves*We’ll also be taking another look [...]

The Lost Art of Letter Writing

With e-mail, instant messaging, cellular phones, as well as land-line telephones, we of the 21st century don’t need to write letters to communicate and keep in touch with friends and family. But during the Victorian era, writing long letters was an important form of communication.
During the Civil War, with families being separated for long lengths [...]

Synopsis

As I bang my head against my computer desk I realize it’s probably not helping. Funny thing is, no matter how hard I bang, the words I need aren’t appearing on the screen. I think that’s highly unfair. Erato, the muse of erotic poetry and the closest I can get to what I’m doing now, [...]

Being Held Accountable

In the past few weeks, I have struggled with finding time to write. No, that’s not true. I have struggled with making time to write. But I’ve had that old lifus interruptus creeping up on me again. I tell myself “Okay, as soon as I finish doing (you fill in the [...]

History – defined and debated

A co-worker of mine recently returned from a library conference and brought me back a few stacks of paper on reader’s advisory (how to advise people who’ve read it all and want something new that’s just like their favorite authors). In one, the speaker talked about “Historical Fiction — Imaging History” and uses this quote [...]