On the eve of the American Civil War, the United States and Great Britain nearly came to blows over a Berkshire pig. Known locally in Washington Territory as the Pig War, it actually is a story of how two countries, one powerful and the other just beginning to rise, came… Read More »The Pig War by J. L. Oakley
Sometimes a history nugget I find while researching for my Michael Stoddard American Revolution mysteries is so good that I include it in one of the novels of the series. Like the story of what happened when William Hooper, an attorney and one of North Carolina’s signers of the Declaration… Read More »Into the Lion’s Den: William Hooper’s Harrowing Mission to Crown-Occupied Wilmington, North Carolina by Suzanne Adair
Despite living in male-dominated Moorish society during Spain’s medieval period, women often had occasions to shape the course of political events. In the summer of 1359, a coup occurred at Granada’s Alhambra, unseating the young Sultan Muhammad V and forcing him with his mother, loyal courtiers and a cadre of… Read More »Medieval Moorish Queens of Spain: Butayna and Maryam – Wives and Rivals by Lisa Yarde
When I decided to move Inez Stannert, the protagonist of my Silver Rush historical mystery series, from 1880 Leadville, Colorado, to 1881 San Francisco, California, I knew it would be a whole new game. For one, Inez needed a new position now that she was settled in the city by… Read More »The Mystery in Music—Music and Labor Activities in Victorian San Francisco by Ann Parker
An honest comment for my first published novel My Splendid Concubine gave me the idea for this post on the history of the changing attitudes of when a female child becomes a woman. The comment said, “The girls (the two concubines in the story) were younger than 15, for goodness… Read More »The Statutory Woman by Lloyd Lofthouse