Living in New York at the Turn of Two Centuries
Astor Place, where Eighth Street, Lafayette Avenue and Fourth Avenue converge, in 1896 and in the present.
Have you worn your bathing suit this summer?
In the history of bathing suit fashion, achieving the right balance of modesty, material, and motion has been a major challenge. Not to mention sex appeal. Maybe you’d prefer one of these styles from the past… Many of us without “perfect bodies” have experienced some degree of anxiety while parading — or should I say skulking — from the relative safety of lying on a beach blanket to the exposure one must endure while entering the water. Some of us might go for this crinoline bathing suit style depicted...
read moreDepartment Store Mannequins, L. Frank Baum, and Automatonophobia, of course
Six things (or more — but who’s counting) about the history of department store MANNEQUINS that everyone needs to know 1. The Dutch word mannekijn, which meant “little man,” evolved to mannequin in France, where it first referred to an artist’s jointed model. By the 1800s, shops in Paris used full-size mannequins made of wicker or paper mache to display clothing. 2. Around the turn of the 20th century, the first department stores in the United States used mannequins made of wax. When sun hit the store windows...
read moreFive Things M.J. Rose Didn’t Know She Needed to Know Before Writing THE COLLECTOR OF DYING BREATHS
My guest author today is M.J. Rose! Her brand new novel The Collector of Dying Breaths crisscrosses between 16th Century Italy and France and present-day France. Fiery and lush, set against deep, wild forests and dimly lit chateaus, The Collector of Dying Breaths illuminates the true path to immortality: the legacies we leave behind. A lush and imaginative novel about a perfumer and a mythologist searching for the fine line between potion and poison, poison and passion…and past and present. Here’s a collection of five...
read moreFive Things Renee Rosen Didn’t Know She Needed To Know Before Writing DOLLFACE
Today author guest Renee Rosen tells us about her learning curve while writing DOLLFACE, which takes place in Chicago during the 1920s. Vera Abramowitz is determined to leave her gritty childhood behind and live a more exciting life. Bobbing her hair and showing her knees, the lipsticked beauty dazzles, doing the Charleston in nightclubs and earning the nickname “Dollface.” When Vera captures the attention of two high rollers — a handsome nightclub owner and a sexy gambler — she thinks her biggest problem is choosing...
read moreFive Things Heather Webb Didn’t Know She Needed to Know Before Writing Her Novel BECOMING JOSEPHINE
This week, Heather Webb visits my blog to divulge five things she didn’t know before writing BECOMING JOSEPHINE, which takes place in Paris during the 18th Century. BECOMING JOSEPHINE is the story of Rose Tascher, who sails from her Martinique plantation to Paris to trade her Creole black magic culture for love and adventure. She arrives exultant to follow her dreams of attending Court with Alexandre, her elegant aristocrat and soldier husband. But Alexandre dashes her hopes and abandons her amid the tumult of the French Revolution....
read moreFeminine Hygiene Products — Stephanie’s Maxi-history (Part 3)
How the Boll Weevil and World War I led to the Acceptance of Disposable Sanitary Pads. Continued from Part 2 — Stephanie’s Mini-history of Feminine Hygiene Products Early attempts to market disposable sanitary napkins failed, and most companies gave up on the product. The vast majority of women went on using homemade pads — usually cotton wrapped in cheesecloth — just as their mothers had, and their mothers before them. Thank God for the Boll Weevil Meanwhile, an infestation of the boll weevil was devastating...
read moreFive things Donna Russo Morin Didn’t Know She’d Need to Know Before Writing THE KING’S AGENT
Today’s guest post is by Donna Russo Morin. Her novel, THE KING’S AGENT, is set in Italy during the early 16th Century. Read on to learn more about Donna’s fascinating research and thoughts behind the story of Battista della Paglia, a man who appears to be an avid art collector but is actually a professional thief. As he procures the greatest masterpieces of the day by any means necessary, he becomes embroiled in a power struggle between Francois, the King of France, and Charles the V, the King of Spain. THE KING’S...
read moreFive Things Deanna Raybourn Didn’t Know She Needed To Know Before Writing CITY OF JASMINE
My guest author today is Deanna Raybourn, and her new novel City of Jasmine is set in London, Damascus, and other exotic European colonial outposts of the 1920s. CITY OF JASMINE, coming out this March, is the captivating tale of a famed aviatrix who embarks upon a journey to see the world and ends up finding intrigue, danger, and a love beyond all reason. Five years after losing her husband on the Lusitania, Evie embarks upon a flight around the world. In the midst of her triumphant tour, she is shocked to receive a mysterious and recent...
read moreFeminine Hygiene Products — Stephanie’s Mini-History (Part 2)
(Continued from Part 1 — The Bloody Reality) Have you ever seen a menstrual stain on something a woman was wearing? Or in the chair she just got out of? I haven’t. Not once. That’s kind of amazing. How do women do it? Because, lets face it: feminine hygiene products are not that great. Leaking can and does occur. I suppose underwear conceals the evidence of most accidents, but I also suspect that women are so deathly afraid of showing a patch of red anywhere near the crotch area that they make pretty darn sure it’s...
read moreFive Things Marci Jefferson Didn’t Know She Needed to Know Before Writing her Novel
The second author guest in my new series of posts telling us THINGS I DIDN’T KNOW I’D NEED TO KNOW BEFORE WRITING MY NOVEL is Marci Jefferson. Her novel GIRL ON THE GOLDEN COIN takes us to London in the Seventeenth Century. Stephanie, thank you for the opportunity to visit your blog today to talk about researching historical novels. Though I am a nurse by day, my love for history drove me to study it independently for many years. Nevertheless, when the idea for GIRL ON THE GOLDEN COIN struck me, I didn’t know I had...
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