Oh Canada!

This week Highlighting Historical Romance will cover Book 1 in my Children of Empire series, which begins in Canada. When I set out to create a series in which the descendants of my Regency heroes and heroines set out to the outposts of empire, the first setting that came to mind was our neighbor up […]

All he needed was a good map… or the means to use it.

Highlighting History with Lizzi Tremayne, in honor of ANZAC Day. As a new citizen to New Zealand in 1993, I first learned of the ANZACs and of the importance of map-reading. On 25 April, “down under” in New Zealand and Australia, in the UK, and at Gallipoli, we commemorate ANZAC day, honoring the fallen, as […]

Life in the Colony of Nova Scotia

  Highlighting Historical Romance welcomes Riana Everly and her research into the history of Nova Scotia. Part of the story in my upcoming release The Assistant takes place in Nova Scotia in the year 1800. A reader accustomed to the comforts and luxuries of London might wonder why I would be so heartless as to send […]

Coffin or Casket

We’re highlighting historical fiction a day late this week. Lizzi Tremayne sent us a thought provoking piece about research, the rivulets down which writers may find themselves…and asks if it really matters.   Not to be getting morbid on you this early in the piece, but really, it’s important. Getting the detail right makes a […]

Beauty’s Poisons

This week we are Highlighting Historical author Cari Davis, and her research into poisons. One of the things I love about writing historical romances is discovering interesting tidbits during my research, like the use of arsenic as a beauty aid during the 1800s. For my novel, Fool’s Gold, I knew the villain would use arsenic […]

Greece: Revolution, and Antiquities

Highlighting Meredith Bond’s thoughts about Greece in the 19th Century I love it when an idea for a book turns into a research project. While it’s true that 90% of my research doesn’t actually make it into my book, the 10% that does makes the book richer and more interesting. This is what happened when I […]

Cattle, Horses, and a Cowhand

Highlighting Ana Morgan’s research about cowhands and their universe. I had lots of first-hand experience to draw on, when I started writing Stormy Hawkins. I knew homesteading. I’d been chased out of a pasture by the neighbor’s Jersey bull. (It had nasty horns and knew exactly how to use them.) I lived near the fictional […]

Writing Romance in the Era of Downton Abbey

Highlighting Historical Romance with Ginger Monette Downton Abbey…. It took the world by storm, and I was swept up in the drama of the Crawley family along with everyone else. I was fascinated how the British aristocracy opened their lavish country homes to be used as hospitals for wounded soldiers during WW1. I had just […]

6 Things I Need to Know This Week

I’m writing two very different stories this weekend, and spending a lot of time researching background for both. There are tons of things I need to know, but these are a start. What products were being brought into England by smugglers in 1838? What were the excise issues? Who was importing opium to England in […]

History As We Write It

Highlighting Historical Fiction welcomes Joan Leotta History is not a collection of dates and lists of people. We think this is so when we are in school, but for me, history was listening to my Grandma talk about what went on in her life. What were people’s reactions when our entry into World War Two […]