I’m in the Prohibition Era for my book in progress and found this charming, linguistic plan of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union to rid European immigrants of their nasty drinking ways and steer them straight to apple juice and Coca-Cola.…
Blog Archives
What’s cooking, 1910’s?
I’m developing my fourth novel, set after World War I, and as always, interested in finding out what people were eating. Here’s some of the new foods on the market and around town. In some cases, the dates are the…
“Why Men Drink,” p. 22
In research for my next book, I was looking for early 20th C magazines accepting fiction from unknowns. The American Magazine read submissions blind, and published many new writers along with some of the great writers of the day: Sherwood…
Under the Same Blue Sky blurbs
I’m happy to share our first blurbs from advance copies of my coming-in-May third novel, Under the Same Blue Sky. “From the smoke-filled streets of Pittsburgh to the war-ravaged landscape of Europe, Under the Same Blue Sky is the story…
Posted in Under the Same Blue Sky
“We struck oil!” he gushed.
Preparing for a workshop on dialogue writing (2/28 in Knoxville), I’ve taken a wild detour into Tom Swifties, the fabulously inventive construction used by Dickens and perfected in the Tom Swift book series (1910 and onward) in which dialogue tags…
Squash, Shrimp & Cod Chowder
Here’s a winter chowder culled and modified from several sources that can warm you while writing or whatever. Squash and Cod Chowder 4 strips bacon, chopped 1 onion, chopped 1-2 cloves garlic, crushed 2-3 ribs celery, chopped 1/2 sweet pepper…
“Dixie.” Really?
Checking for the year of the song “Dixie,” I came upon the remarkable fact that the original conceit of this minstrel song was that a freed slave is pining for the land of his birth and servitude. Huh? I always assumed it…
Posted in Just life
PTSD in Mesopotamia
My research for Under the Same Blue Sky on shell shock (PTSD) in World War I uncovered constant references to generals and politicians being themselves shocked, shocked by the number of afflicted soldiers. Really? You send men into battle, enduring…
Lessons in Soba Making
Recently I was in a vast underground labyrinth of a Singapore shopping mall, waiting to meet a friend at a coffee shop and came upon this lesson in soba (noodle) making. There is a Japanese chain restaurant in which the…
Posted in Food
Pigeon saves 194 men
Once I dove into World War I history, I found too many stories for one novel. Here’s an amazing one: Cher Ami, a homing pigeon who saved 194 desperate American soldiers in the Battle of Argonne, in October, 1918. The…
Posted in Under the Same Blue Sky
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