Do you play…croquet?

It’s my favorite line from Alice in Wonderland. No, I don’t know if it’s from the books (though I suspect it is) or even which book it’d be from. It’s from the Disney version. The Queen of Hearts is fantastic in it (as always), and asks Alice that line when Alice inadvertently stumbles onto her [...]

Erich Maria Remarque born 1898

You know, the author of the World War I novel All Quiet on the Western Front.
What does his birth have to do with the Victorian Era?Very little, actually. But it was a great book, and I highly recommend it.
The celebrated American journalist H. L. Mencken called All Quiet on theWestern Front “unquestionably the best story [...]

You could WIN one of Four GRAND PRIZES!

Historical Romance Club is celebrating its 4th Anniversary with a HUGE Contest! With over Forty books generously donated by some of your favorite Romance Authors, the Historical Romance Club will be giving away Four GRAND PRIZES. The Diamond Prize Package; The Ruby Prize Package; The Emerald Prize Package; and The Sapphire Prize Package. Each package [...]

Victorian Names

This is something that I often have a difficult time with as a writer–choosing names for my characters. It’s hard enough writing contemporary novels. A name can say a lot about a character. To write in a previous era, however, you not only have to choose a name that tells the reader [...]

Researching What I Don’t Know

A discussion on the Hearts Through History Romance Writers loop inspired this blog.
In my time travel romance, Erin’s Rebel, the hero, a Confederate officer, is in one of the trenches around Petersburg, Virginia, when Yankee shelling causes the trench to collapse, burying him.
He’s pulled out but suffers a few broken ribs and a broken leg. [...]

Wallace D. Wattles, Genius or Victorian Flim-Flam?

Wallace Delois Wattles (1860-1910) began his most famous book, THE SCIENCE OF GETTING RICH, with these words:
“Whatever may be said in the praise of poverty, the fact remains that it is not possible to live a complete or successful life unless one is rich. You cannot rise to your greatest possible height in talent [...]

Picture Pages

With the help of Mary Ann, I’ve added another picture page, this one of the American West.

http://home.comcast.net/~dleagan61/index_files/Page298.htm

We’ve got an old courthouse up there, which is now a museum, and the Driskell Hotel of Austin, opened 1886. It has some very cool old architecture including cow gargoyles, like the one pictured here. The [...]