Looking back on 2019 From ringing in the year with a completed first draft of my manuscript to ending the year with the final manuscript at the publishers, 2019 has been a terrific year to launch to my writing career. I’ve managed to land an agent, an editor, production/publishing company and a publicist. I’ve worked […]
Monthly Archives: December 2019
19th Century Toys Under the Christmas Tree
What kinds of toys were under your tree Christmas morning? Did you spend hours dreaming about that perfect pair of roller skates or a Barbie Dreamhouse? All of the research I’ve done for Masque of Honor has fueled literally a thousand questions and curiosities about then vs. now. And regardless of when you were born, […]
EVERY HOUSE TELLS A STORY
Selma was my inspiration for writing Masque of Honor. When we undertook the restoration of Selma, stories began to unfold and ideas filled my mind and heart. Every house is comprised of the stories of its past and current inhabitants. Selma has a complicated and periodically documented past; it has been so much fun unraveling […]
Christmas in the Early 19th Century
As I wrote Masque of Honor, I wanted to include a scene to recreate Christmas in the early in 19th century. Christmas as we know it today dates to the later half of the 19th century. But how did Virginians celebrate Christmas in 1817? To figure that out, I had to do more than a […]
It’s Never too Late to Read the Classics … Make it a New Year’s Resolution
Is your TBR list getting longer by the day and somehow you still haven’t managed to get through the Classics? It isn’t too late to re-discover the books you might have dreaded long ago in high school but are curious about today. I don’t love New Year’s resolutions … but getting started on the Classics […]
The History Before the Era of Good Feelings
Except for an opening scene, Masque of Honor is set in Virginia between 1816 and 1819. This period in American history is known as the Era of Good Feelings (~1817-1825) and was dominated by one political party, Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic Republicans. But Masque of Honor is about the Mason-McCarty duel that was fought as a […]
