STEAMPUNK: “Party Like It’s 1899″

You may think you’ve never read a Steampunk book or seen a Steampunk movie, but there’s a good chance you have. Find out more about Steampunk. It’s been around. You may even be WRITING IT!
STEAMPUNK is defined by Wikipedia as “subgenre of fantasy and speculative fiction that came into prominenece in the 1980’s and early 1990’s. These include works set [...]

Mary Ann Webber Interview

Why do you write historical?
For me, a story is not escapism – it’s not even romance – unless it’s historical!
Why not escape high gas prices, faltering economy, war, and political races by entering a beautiful period in our past. Give me long skirts, fine manners, and the clip-clop of carriage horses on cobblestone streets.
Actually, I’ve [...]

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 [...]

VICTORIAN FASTLANE: Part 2, Two Astor Women – "Lina" and Nancy

“Lina” and Nancy Astor were obviously different sorts of women – their personalities, appearances and lives were worlds apart. But, in three ways, they were alike – each was born in the Victorian era, each married an Astor, and each became more famous and influential than her husband.
“Lina” was the former Caroline Webster Schermerhorn (1830 [...]

VICTORIAN FASTLANE: Part 2, John Jacob Astor I

America’s Gilded Age began with the legendary John Jacob Astor. He is called “the first truly diversified capitalist in America” by Brian Trumbore, editor of Stocks and News.com.Astor founded the dynasty that was America’s richest family in the 19th century. The name Astor is still newsworthy. Recent headlines about the care of Brooke Astor, the [...]

VICTORIAN FASTLANE: Part 1, The Tycoons

WELCOME to a new series on the Tycoons,the fascinating men who created today’s corporate world. Their heyday matched Victoria’s reign almost exactly – although some say their age ended when the Titanic sank in 1912.The Tycoons created the industrial system that gave the United States the most powerful and dynamic economy in the world. Masters [...]

1886 Victorian Hotel To Be Focus of GHOST HUNTERS March 22

What’s a Victorian hotel without a few resident ghosts? A hotel that’s probably losing money. The beautiful Crescent Hotel in the Victorian SPA, Eureka Springs, Arkansas, doesn’t have to worry about ghosts or business. They’ve been conducting their nightly Ghost Tours for years, sometimes with eerie success.
This photo of the 120 year old fireplace in [...]

Great Resource for Men’s Hats in the 19th Century

Some of you may already know about this site but I found it accidentally today.It’s Clearwater Hats: www.clearwaterhats.com/ .I think this site is a gold mine!Its categories include CIVIL WAR, VICTORIAN, OLD WEST, and HOLLYWOOD. (Jude Law wore their Slouch hat in the movie, COLD MOUNTAIN.)I didn’t know a Derby from a Bowler, or that [...]

Slip Into Something Victorian Blog

Another of my favorite books is CRACKER CULTURE, Celtic Ways in the Old South. This was written by Grady McWhiney and published by the University of Alabama Press.From the dustjacket: From their solid base in the southern back country, Celts and their “Cracker” descendents swept westward decade after decade throughout the Antebellum period until they [...]

My Little Corner of the Victorian Era

One overwhelming interest of mine is the American South – after the Civil War and before 1900. It was a wild and wacky place, and not nearly as sad and downtrodden as people “let on.” In fact, it became a boom-time.
There was exaggeration and outright lying about the status of various families before the war, [...]