Forced Marriage in Regency England

Highlighting the facts behind historical romance with Jude Knight and thoughts on marriage in the Regency era. 1140 was a watershed year in the Western understanding of the institution of marriage. In that year, the Benedictine monk Gratian published his canon law textbook, Decretum Gratiani, ruling that the consent of the couple was essential for […]

January Woes

Let’s begin with the good news: The Forgotten Daughter is available for pre-order and on schedule for a January 27 release. Please do pre-order. It is only 99 cents now, but it will revert to full retail price on after launch. The candles came out of the windows the day after Epiphany. In the Regency […]

Blessed Are Those Who Mourn

Highlighting the facts behind the fiction with Jude Knight on mourning in the Regency Era. In the novella I am currently writing, my duchess is coming to terms with being a widow and, at the same time, losing her job. So I’ve been checking up on mourning customs. As in so many things, we look […]

Falmouth Harbor

Highlighting the facts behind the fiction with Penny Hampson. Most of the action in A Bachelor’s Pledge, the third book in my Gentlemen Series takes place in Falmouth, Cornwall. Now, if you don’t know, Falmouth is a small seaside town on the south western coast of England. I chose this location because, during the Napoleonic […]

Slaves or Thinkers?

Highlighting Historical Romance with Rue Allen who continues here series on Medieval Women: Slaves to Convention or Independent Thinkers (Part two of three) In the first of my posts [published here on Sept. 5, 2019] about Medieval women and the common mis-conceptions about them, I discussed the holy women of the time, Abbesses, Anchoresses and […]

Layer-out of the Dead

Highlighting Historical Romance with Jeanine Englert and Victorian funeral practices Layer-out of the Dead: Once a Matriarchal Profession The layer-out of the dead of times past was the equivalent to today’s mortician. Preparing bodies for burial was predominantly performed by women up until the later portion of the Victorian era when mourning and all the […]

Winds of Inspiration

First Coffee

The wind blows where it wills… It was super windy on Saturday, a gift from Hurricane Willa as it swept back out to sea and turned into a nor’easter blowing across the Jersey shore.  Tradition shows the Holy Spirit as a might wind, blowing wherever He chooses.  Inspiration is like that. I’m looking out at […]

Hell’s Aftermath

Highlighting Historical Romance with P.A. Estelle My contribution to this anthology is, The Widow Buys A Groom. It takes place three years after the ending of The Civil War. This was my first story during this era and research included topics such as, Elmira, a Union camp where Confederates were kept and information on the […]

Real-life Civil War Soldier Brings a Character to Life

Highlighting Historical Romance with Jessica James Even though I grew up in Gettysburg, Pa., I didn’t have any interested in the Civil War until I moved to Virginia and discovered a real-life Confederate soldier named John Singleton Mosby. This Virginia legend is difficult to miss and impossible to overlook. One cannot drive through Loudoun or […]

Trashed! Coffee please!

He who talks more is sooner exhausted. Lao Tzu   That must explain why I am completely trashed this Monday afternoon—much talking and dancing and costume changes and friend making and parties—many parties at the Historical Romance Retreat at the Mission Inn last week. I learned that there are right hand quills and left and […]