Archive for October 2022
A Tragedy in 1914 — Ludlow, Colorado
Plaster bust by Paul Manship, photo by moi The dour looking fellow above is John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937), founder of Standard Oil. His son was a philanthropist, BUT he kept one of his father’s businesses, the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. When the workers, fed up with the terrible conditions and lousy pay, went on…
Read MoreLibbie Grant: Melding the Personal and the Historical
Libbie Grant’s powerful novel, The Prophet’s Wife (William Morrow, 2022) tells the story of Emma Hale Smith, wife of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon religion. In Grant’s telling, Emma is a woman of intelligence, complexity, and strength with a deep and abiding faith in God. She acts as her husband’s chief supporter but…
Read MoreWhen Your Historical Fiction isn’t all that Historical or Fictional
When I decided to write my historical novel, I chose the year 1913 because it was such a pivotal time period. The Gilded Age was coming to a close; World War I had not yet started. And prohibition was a few years away. Specifically, in 1913 the Grand Central Terminal opened, the famous Armory Art…
Read MoreThe Camera Hanging on the Wall
I had finished the revisions for The Burning Bride, the second book in my Delafield & Malloy Investigation series. Or at least I thought I had. Right before I went to sleep that night, I remembered that my main character (Louisa) takes a Vest Pocket Kodak (VPK) with her on a trip, but when catastrophe…
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