Free Short Story

My short story, Dark Desire of the Druids: The Tryst, is now available for FREE from Ravenous! This is the direct prequel to Dark Desire of the Druids I: Murder & Magick.
Blurb:
From the moment he sees her, Malcolm Wargrave, Earl of Preston wanted Raven Drake. On a secluded estate in England, he sets out to [...]

Civil War vampires, anyone?

It’s always fun coming up with a new twist on a romance genre. I did that with my short vampire story, Eternity Waits by setting my vampire tale in a Civil War camp. I’d always wanted to write a vampire story and that was my first.
So, what else to do, but set another vampire story [...]

Vote for Women!

Woman’s Rights…we take a lot for grated these days. It never occurred to me that Title IX was anything but some government gibberish. What does it mean to a kid, anyway? And how many kids today can tell you what it means? I had no idea it meant I could play sports or there was [...]

The Aristocratic Philadelphians–part one of a few

As I mentioned in an early post, I’ve moved my research into the American Victorian aristocracy into Philadelphia.  Unfortunately for me, I couldn’t find books on it that are quite as easy to read and get easy information as I found with San Francisco and Boston, and to some extent New York.  As I type [...]

Why Victorians Loved a Sale

We’ve discussed previously that the Victorians practiced economy, but within a decade of the start of the era the concept of shopping at a sale began. Shopping had taken new form and catalog distribution by the postal carriers sparked the images of the new trends which Victorians didn’t want to pass them by. Shopping, then, [...]

May I Have This Dance?

Actually, in the Victorian period, a gentleman would ask a lady for “the honor of a dance.”
I’ve been researching Victorian balls in the period of the Civil War, because although my short Civil War Christmas story begins in a Union army camp at Fredericksburg, Virginia, the story concludes at a lavish ball in Washington, D.C. [...]

Professionalism

I’m supposed to blog today! I’m on vacation in Puerto Rico! (I know, I know, no sympathy, I’ll get over it I’m sure.) But the point is I have nothing. So I thought I’d throw this out. Recently on another group we were discussing professionalism and what to do when you encounter unprofessional people attacking YOU.
My [...]

Victorian American Aristocracy

I’ve done a couple guest blogs(  Novel Thoughts and Yankee Romance Reviewers),  in the last couple months, and both times I ended up talking about  the 19th century American Aristocracy.  I think I’ve glossed over it from time to time at Slip into Something Victorian, most notably a posting about Ward McAllister’s famous 400, but I [...]

The Imperial Hotel

     A man and his wife had just returned from a long day of antique shopping in Amador City and nearby Sutter Creek in the gold rush area of California.  His wife, in fragile health, was parched and exhausted.  He flagged down the harried waitress and asked for a glass of water.  The hostess did [...]

What an icestorm taught me about the Victorians

I love writing historical romance partly because the idea of flickering fires and lamp light or gas light sounds so romantic.  It’s in pretty much every book I write: a scene where the sound of the crackling fire fills the room.  I know it’s cliché; I can’t help it.  I think a crackling fire sets [...]