Although the idea of writing a 1920s rum-running novel had occasionally tempted me, what made it begin to take shape was a merry-go-round … and a chance meeting with an old man on a beach. Don’t picture sweeping stretches of sand with acres of bikini-clad bodies. This was a beach… Read More »Where They Hid the Booze, by M. Ruth Myers
On the cover of my new book The Crimson Bed is a beautiful picture by John William Waterhouse. (1849-1917) He was not a part of the original Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood which had disbanded as a group by the time Waterhouse was a young man. However, like many other artists who came… Read More »Where did the Skull Go? by Loretta Proctor
Childbirth could be especially dangerous during the Middle Ages, especially for women with complications. A safe delivery and a healthy child were cause for celebration, as well as imposing a few restrictions. Whether Christian, Muslim or Jewish, the lying-in for the mother was a tradition that crisscrossed cultures and religions.… Read More »Medieval Childbirth by Lisa Yarde
Saint Patrick was not quite the snake-chasing evangelist of Ireland that he is most commonly misperceived to have been. In How the Irish Saved Civilization, Thomas Cahill explains that Patrick (Naomh Pádraig) was a Welsh farm boy kidnapped into slavery at the age of sixteen by pagan Irish raiders early… Read More »Saint Patrick and Ireland by Jack Dixon
I think most people who read, and especially those who write literature and Historical Fiction of the Victorian era understand the typical in’s and out’s of courtship propriety. (For a brief discussion on the topic, visit my post, here.) But it’s interesting, if you think about it, how unsettled… Read More »(pr)eHarmony – or Alternative Courtship in the Victorian Era by V. R. Christensen