The Details Matter

Highlighting Historical Romance with Linda Carroll-Bradd and the ways cultural details enhance stories As I plot and write my sweet historical romances, I do my best to include interesting features of one of my protagonist’s cultural background. In the 1800s, America was a true melting pot of peoples from a host of countries. Many of […]

Nevada’s Copper Queen

Highlighting Historical Romance with Angela Christina Archer Someone once asked me: “Have I ever used real women as inspirations for my characters?” The answer is yes. And one in particular was for my heroine in A Road Paved in Copper. Anyone who knows my dad knows he likes to tell stories. One afternoon while visiting […]

Setting, Characters, and Mail-order Brides

Highlighting Historical Romance with Caroline Clemens I love to write and to read mail-order bride stories. Like most romance readers, I read to relax and dive into another world that guarantees a happily-ever-after ending. After all, if I wanted to be depressed, I could watch the evening news. I strive to be factual as far […]

African-American Mail Order Brides

Highlighting Historical Romance with Michal Scott Today Michal sheds light on a little-known part of American history, the migration of African-American men who chose to go West after the Civil War and the women who followed them. The lives of African Americans in the Post Civil War era is a rich and varied saga. Newly […]

Coffin or Casket

We’re highlighting historical fiction a day late this week. Lizzi Tremayne sent us a thought provoking piece about research, the rivulets down which writers may find themselves…and asks if it really matters.   Not to be getting morbid on you this early in the piece, but really, it’s important. Getting the detail right makes a […]

Beauty’s Poisons

This week we are Highlighting Historical author Cari Davis, and her research into poisons. One of the things I love about writing historical romances is discovering interesting tidbits during my research, like the use of arsenic as a beauty aid during the 1800s. For my novel, Fool’s Gold, I knew the villain would use arsenic […]

Bringing the Oregon Trail to Life

  Tina Susedik with details about the Oregon Trail The Trail to Love is my first historical romance and part of The Soul Mate Tree Collective. The story is set on the Oregon Trail. As I wrote the book, I research many words to find out if they were used in 1854 and was surprised […]

Love, Marriage, and Texas

Highlighting Historical Romance: Caroline Clemmons Caroline brings us the aftermath of the American Civil War and its impact on love and marriage: Readers of historical romance are familiar with the devastation caused by the American Civil War, especially in several eastern states. In fact, more men died in this war than in World War II. […]

Victorian Spy Gadgets: What Every Lady Pinkerton Needs

Highlighting Historical Romance: Adrienne deWolfe In Devil in Texas, my romantic, Western Whodunit, I yearned to give cool spy gadgets to Sadie, my Lady Pinkerton, so she could outwit sinister masterminds. The trouble was, I figured readers would scoff at my outlandish ideas: “A smoke bomb that functions as a button? A mini gun hidden […]

A Recluse and a Refugee

Highlighting Historical Romance: Dorothy A Bell We’re pleased to present an interview with the author. CW: Please tell us about the historical background for your book. Baker City and Sumpter, Oregon experienced a big gold rush after the Civil War years. The famous lost Blue Bucket mine is in the Blue Mountains somewhere waiting to […]