Glasgow and Beyond

I travel. Sometimes I travel by boat, plane, or automobile. Sometimes I travel by book. Sometimes I explore the real world. This week I rambled to a small estate and textile mills in and around Glasgow and then on to London and the stifling townhouse of the vile Duke of Auchen with my fellow bluestocking, […]

Slow But Steady

The morning after a storm pounded the south and east, and the urban wilds of Eastern Pennsylvania (and New Jersey) awoke to steady rain that has washed away last evenings snow. Alas snow flurries have returned but they don’t amount to much. I’ll take it! Progress was made on The Upright Son last week, but […]

A Bit of This and That

Busy week! Since I saw you last (so to speak) I planted flowers, hauled beloved to Home Depot (twice), weeded two beds, repotted an orchid, weed-whacked the back yard, and cleaned the clutter that accumulates when a husband is left to his own devices for three weeks. I also gave The Defiant Daughter her very […]

Allhallowtide

Highlighting Historical Romance with Charlotte Brothers and the facts about Allhallowtide behind A Bird in the Hand. Thank you, Caroline and readers, for this opportunity to wave my hand in the air and share a little bit about A Year in Cherrybrook. I am a big fan of Caroline’s well-crafted stories, and the Bluestocking Belles […]

The Seven Curses of London

Highlighting the Facts Behind Historical Romance with Lana Williams When I first encountered a book called The Seven Curses of London while doing research for a book set in Victorian London that I was writing, I was fascinated. The title alone is intriguing, don’t you think? The Seven Curses of London, published in 1869 and […]

Shalloons— and Other Wool Textiles

Highlighting Historical Romance with Bronwyn Parry on historical wool textiles. Calamanco, camblet, lastings, shalloons… chances are, you may never have heard these terms. They’re the names of various worsted (wool) textiles that have virtually disappeared from our cultural memory, and yet they were once so common that everyone in Georgian and Regency Britain would have […]

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 […]

British Amazons

Highlighting Historical Romance with Maria Grace on archery and the British Amazons As the Georgian period drew to a close, an increasing fascination with the medieval past led to a revival of the English archery tradition. (Sounds nothing like what we do today, does it? SCA friends, I’m looking at you!) While most sporting activities […]