Philadelphia

I love the city, it's got everything from revolution to clubs and some really great food. It's also got a history I'm currently delving into. Lots going on there, even as recently as 120 years ago. My current WIP is set there in 1882. Busy year for the city, lots of construction - I'm not convinced it's all finished yet, either. Have you tried to drive through there lately?

Anyway, the ushistory.org site is a fantastic one for historical tidbits in a nice little timeline.

Reading list

I've just finished The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. 5 stars all the way.

What a cool idea! Very interesting and novel way to look at the book world. In Fforde's universe, books are the popular culture. Authors the celebrities, and Shakespeare the Frank Sinatra of the modern world. People have been arrested to putting on their own interruptions of his works, and the Friday night date is a play and dinner.

You've got alternate history, a time-traveling father, cloned extinct animals, and a genius uncle who invented a machine to enter books. Literally. You can enter a book at any point in the narrative and explore. As long as you don't mess with the actual storyline.

The best thing? There are sequels! Lost in a Good Book here I come.

Time

I consider myself a hard working woman. I like it when things are finished, and I don't mind working until they're done. In saying that, I find myself at a bit of a loss to describe why it's been a week since I've written anything. Can my non-writing life be that busy? Well, yes. It sucks up your time and energy. makes you wish for the days of less technology. OK, not really. Still, I'd love to get 10 hours of sleep a night, wake up and get what I have to done, and STILL have time for all the writing I want to do.

Laundry gets in the way, keeping the kitchen clean (and why is that always the first place that's messy? It's not like I cook.), and so on and so on and so on. It's never-ending I say. And I'm exhausted just thinking about it. Still, I find myself with a few minutes and think I should write something. I think it'll make me feel better.

Research

I love the internet. It's a one-sided love affair but I'm OK with that. And, yes, there are a lot of interlopers trying to tempt me with their supremely awful so-called facts. Overall it's incredibly easy to find what I need and find the right info I need.

And fast. Man, it's fast. Even when I had to email someone in England about an historic railway in Leeds, I got a response in a day. If I had to write to them...I'd probably still not have my answer. Mostly because I doubt I'd have ever mailed the letter. Then the scene would've been significantly shorter. Actually, since I know (er, knew) little of trains in the 1880s, that scene would've been entirely different had I not had the internet.

Of course I'm lazy. I adore books, don't get me wrong, and some of the pictures and captions in them are great. But do I have time to read a 500 page book on anything? No. Skimming the internet is so much faster. And I can do it at home, no trips to the library.

Trains

I wanted to write a little article on traveling in the Victorian era, and trains were the main mode of transportation. I was wrong. Not about train travel and the Victorians, but about the history of rail travel. [1]

Needless to say, by the time steam technology caught up with the world, people were more than ready for it. Track crisscrossed America, Europe, and Africa.

Due in large part to Russia's large land area and harsh conditions,
transportation has always been a major problem for its people and government. In
early times, waterways provided the majority of transportation for goods and
passengers. Some roads were also built, but they were only usable at certain
times of the year due to the weather, and were not good even then. Railroads,
although experiencing a slow start, proved to be more efficient for
transportation than either waterways or roads. [2]

You can do a lot with serf labor.

This was also the era when tourists became big. Not necessarily in today's sense of the word, but people traveled more to see things they didn't necessarily need to. The World's Fair, New York, Philadelphis, Boston, Washington. London for those in the country and the country for those in London.

I got so bogged down in who, where, and when that I decided to post a few links instead of a long disertation on the subject.

Victorian Train Travel:
http://www.britainexpress.com/History/railways.htm
http://www.fashion-era.com/victorians.htm#The%20Railway%20-%20A%20Symbol%20Of%20Victorian%20Progress

Railroad History:
http://www.sdrm.org/history/timeline/
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blrailroad.htm

Panic

I've lost my website. It's not there - I have it, but it's not coming up. And I'm not convinced it's my fault. It was there, all pretty and UP. I was all set to upload a new article I'd done on Victorians and sex and poof! Nothing's there. I suspect something happened with the hosting site. I can only hope something did. Of course I haven't been to my own site in a while, so now I really don't know how long it's been like this.

Breathe...

Off to frantically email them to fix this problem.

Series?

I had intended to do a 1-shot with my Birthrite story. It was going to be an AU historical and I was going to be happy that my world-building was going for a good cause. The story itself didn't progress like that. Of course I watch a lot of the History Channel and got a few great ideas from their shows that I just had to incorporate. Never watch history when writing a historical. You'd think the 2 would mix but no.

Back to Birthrite. It became 2 stories. Then I thought, oh, but what about Gareth? And then there were 3. Now I'm thinking, as Book 2 takes shape, but what about poor Isadore? She has no story, and I feel bad for her. Eh, now it's a 4 book series. They each have their own ending, and will probably be able to be read on their own. At least that's what I'm aiming for. It worked in book 1, Raven's story!

Done!

Finished the synopsis and after agonizing over it for some time sent the entire thing . Cover letter, synopsis, chapters, and . It was terrifying. Plus I think I messed something up in the subject line and of course it's way to late now to fix it.

Did I mention I'm obsessing over this?

Welcome

I'm not a new author, but have completed my first manuscript. It's kinda exciting, actually, and I haven't stopped telling people. "Hey, guess what? I finished my book!" Yeah, they're tired of hearing it. Pft. What do they know. They've never written a book. Or at least finished one.

Birthrite is a historical paranormal. It was very hard writing a story in the overly strict Victorian society with loads of sex while trying to keep to their rules AND try to create a magickal world.

Now...to send it out. Actually, to write the synopsis.