The five novels in my Victorian San Francisco mystery series primarily feature Annie Fuller, a young woman who runs a boarding house, and Nate Dawson, a San Francisco lawyer who helps her solve crimes. However, I frequently publish short stories and novellas to let the minor characters in my novels… Read More »Victorian San Francisco and 19th century police techniques by M. Louisa Locke.
Sometimes, contrarian that I am, I just can’t help myself. Despite being a pacifist at heart, the military Orders in medieval Europe have long fascinated me. I find it difficult to understand how a faith that says forgiveness is its base could ever justify violence. Yet there they were: Brother… Read More »The Hospitallers by Priscilla Royal
I was a teenager living in Florida during America’s Bicentennial in 1976 and was aware of only one event that marked the 200th “birthday” of the nation. It was a boat parade, followed by a larger-than-usual fireworks display on the Fourth of July. Of course, everyone dressed in red, white,… Read More »Why America’s Semiquincentennial Isn’t Only About the Year 2026—or the North by Suzanne Adair
Five years after the 2009 debut of my first historical novel, Rubies of the Viper, I began work on its sequel, The Viper Amulet, which was published in 2017. When that second book’s own sequel, The Ruby Ring, is finished in 2019, it will complete the sprawling first-century family saga… Read More »The Pleasures and Pitfalls of Writing a Fictional Sequel by Martha Marks
The great thing about language is that it changes. The bad thing about language is that it changes. Most of us hardly notice our syntax and vocabulary until someone calls attention to it. A snicker, a raised brow, or an impassioned plea can force us to consider how we say… Read More »The Language of History: How Much Is Enough? by Peg Herring