Someone once asked me how to overcome writer’s block. I responded that there’s no such thing. Someone else asked me where I get all my ideas. I answered by asking how she could avoid having ideas. Any time I think I’m running low on ideas, I only need to pick up a… Read More »How I Wrote the Imaginary Emperor (Or Allowed It To Write Itself) by Steve Bartholomew
Poppaea Sabina lived her life as a patrician Roman woman on a top-tier stage in the middle decades of the first century A.D. For an author researching and writing about that time period, it would be hard to ignore her flamboyant rise and catastrophic fall. Even though Poppaea’s role in Rubies… Read More »Poppaea Sabina by Martha Marks
(From Paris Partout! A guide for the English and American Traveller in 1869 or How to see PARIS for 5 guineas) Part One: How to get there PARIS! – gay and beautiful Paris – rich in architectural treasures, teeming with historic associations of deepest interest – favoured in its genial climate… Read More »Historical Tidbits: The Guide to Gay Paree 1869 by Iva Polansky
The following is an edited version of a post I wrote earlier this year about how doing research can divert an author from making progress on their writing. This is particularly true for the writer of historical fiction. In my case I was trying to make some progress on the Uneasy Spirits,… Read More »The Streets of San Francisco: Detoured, Diverted, and Derailed by Historical Research by M. Louisa Locke
Interesting. Enlightening. Gratifying. Perplexing. All describe readers’ reviews from an author’s point of view. Sometimes, readers post gratifying comments, the kind you want to quote on your website. Other times, they post perplexing comments, as in the case of two reviewers of Rubies of the Viper. One complained that “Roman slaves… Read More »So… how would they talk? by Martha Marks