How do I get started writing a historical fiction book? What historical preconceptions altered my book research? What advice do I have about how to include historical figures in your own writing? Is there a historical era I wouldn’t write? These and many more questions were answered on A.F. Stewart’s panel Writing History: Spilling the […]
Dr. Sylvester Andral Kilmer became a household name in the late 1800s and early 1900s. He’s written about quite a bit now, in fact, but it’s not due to medical achievement. Dr. Kilmer truly believed in his remedies, although they sound funny to us today. Swamp Root, Autumn Leaf Extract, and Ocean Weed Heart Remedy […]
After taking a couple of months off for various reasons, Fun Classic Reads is back! Thursday, January 23 at 8 p.m. ET, we’re bringing you classic horror—and comedy! An abridged humorous Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. We were going to do it in November in honor of his […]
In this post: What happened to NanoWrimo 2025 update 2024 original post The consequences of their actions NanoWrimo alternatives list with links What happened to NaNoWriMo? 2025 UPDATE: NaNoWriMo has closed its doors since the writing of this post due to the many issues they created. I’m going to leave this post as is for […]
Today, Amazon announced that Kindle Vella is coming to a close. Here’s the timeline: As of today, October 28, 2024, authors cannot post new stories but can continue to post new episodes in existing stories. Readers can no longer comment on episodes. As of December 4, 2024, authors will no longer be able to post […]
Sherlock Holmes comes to Fun Classic Reads on August 8, 2024! We’ll be reading the short story “The Adventure of the Six Napoleons” by Arthur Conan Doyle in its entirety. It was originally published in Collier’s in the US in 1904, then in The Strand Magazine in England the next month. Finally, it was collected, along […]
I’ve bought a few small Victorian diaries in my time, but never a full-sized antique ledger being used as a journal! It’s the best of both worlds: part business ledger for a blacksmithing business, part personal diary. The blacksmith’s name is G. R. Shultes. He was young, still in school, but at the same time, […]
Join productivity sprints with historical fiction authors Margaret Pinard and me on Friday, April 26, 2024! We’ll be spending 2 hours doing a productivity livestream that includes productivity sprints and breaks. You can work on anything at all during the productivity sprints: your schedule for next week or next month, your to-do list, some research, […]
It’s National Picnic Day, so what did Victorian picnic food look like? Get ready to be shocked. Victorian picnics could be family events or social events held by groups or churches. So the amount of attendees varied a lot. In Mrs. Beeton’s Dictionary of Every-Day Cookery from 1865, a 40-person picnic menu included (get ready […]
Jeeves and Wooster have always been a well-loved pair, both in books and in TV adaptations. Now we’re going to bring you “Pearls Mean Tears” from The Inimitable Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in 1923, and you can bet it’s going to be a lot of fun! What the world needs right now is […]