I rarely come out as a writer. It’s too fraught. Someone in the room has a friend of a friend who’s an author and whose novel was published by a BIIIIIIG PUBLISHER and it’s a runaway bestseller making a motza. When pushed for details, like a title or nome-de-plume, they’re usually… Read More »Keep It In The Closet by G. S. Johnston
One of the aspects of writing, and reading, historical fiction that I enjoy is learning about customs from different parts of the world in different time periods. In my own Victorian San Francisco Mystery series, I’ve been able to explore some of the late 19th century rituals associated with Halloween,… Read More »Winter Holidays through the Ages
The thought of a drowned village is compelling. It grabs hold of our imaginations and does not let go. The waters are serene; the sun sparkles off ripples as Canada Geese swoop in to land. The purple-blooming moors of the hilltops descend into pine woods, the trees reaching the shoreline;… Read More »The Drowned Village of Thores-Cross by Karen Perkins
Hand of Fire, set within the Trojan War, is told from Briseis’s point of view—a woman who lived the pain and grief of that iconic conflict. The novel first came out in 2014 to positive reviews. Then, two years later, Hand of Fire went out of print for a time after… Read More »Hand of Fire: #MeToo Moment in a Renaissance of Trojan War Books by Judith Starkston
In Uncivil Defense, latest book in the mystery series featuring 1940s private eye Maggie Sullivan, a woman wears a snood. It prompted one early reader to ask, “What’s a snood?” My first impulse was to say it’s sort of like a fancy hairnet. Half a second’s reflection, however, made me… Read More »Why Snoods Were Swell for 1940s Women by M. Ruth Myers