Mixed in with all the happiness of Christmas are some sad memories, and I couldn’t let Christmas 2014 pass without mentioning the events of seventy years ago, Christmas Eve 1944. It was a wartime Christmas, a hopeful time, as the … Continue reading →
If you are a fan of Bernard Cornwell’s Richard Sharpe books, or have seen Sean Bean’s excellent portrayal of the hero in the series, you are familiar with the battles among the French, British, Spanish and Portuguese in the Iberian peninsula during the Napoleonic era. And if … Continue reading →
Though the Prince Regent of England declared a day of Thanksgiving in January 1816, Thanksgiving as an annual holiday is a new world phenomenon. In the United States, the tireless crusading of Sarah Hale led in 1863 to the establishment of Thanksgiving as a national holiday. The “Mother of Thanksgiving” was … Continue reading →
Before the vacuum cleaner, before refrigeration, indoor plumbing, radiant heat, electric lights, and washing machines, the world was filled with professional working women, like the very fetching one above. Call it the second oldest profession: servants. It was not only the … Continue reading →
A friend of mine recently declared how happy she is about Matthew Goode portraying George Wickham in the PBS version of P.D. James’s Death Comes to Pemberley. He is one of the best-cast characters in this bleak, dark, depressing representation of … Continue reading →
In the spirit of last week’s list of facts about hunting for game in Regency England, I’m writing about marriage and divorce in England, but I must start earlier than the Georgian/Regency period because the chaos of the earlier years led to major … Continue reading →
Some Good News This morning I opened my email to some very good news–my contemporary manuscript, Breaking Down the Rules, is a finalist in the Golden Claddagh contest. This story is a sequel to my last year’s Fab Five Contest winner, … Continue reading →
Today is Memorial Day in the United States, a day set aside to honor those fallen in our country’s wars, and those who served and are now gone. Some romance authors have built whole careers on wounded heroes returning from battles ranging from Waterloo … Continue reading →
My high school European History teacher, Mr. Frein, divided our Senior class into groups and had us write papers arguing which country bore the blame for starting World War I—the Germans, the Brits, the Russians, or the Austro-Hungarians. It was … Continue reading →