beckylower

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New Release!

In Gilead’s Physician, journey back to the late 19th century inSalacoa Valley, Georgia, where James Buchanan, a young manwith dreams of becoming a doctor, returns to his hometownafter completing his education. As he steps into his role as thecommunity’s healer, James finds himself captivated by MaryAlice, a woman whose beauty and charm are impossible toignore.Set against the backdrop of a…

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Mona Lisa’s Daughter: A Journey of Discovery by Belle Ami

Research is the cornerstone of my book creation process, and Mona Lisa’s Daughter was a particularly demanding project. The dual timelines of 16th-century Florence and World War II Florence, separated by nearly 500 years, presented a unique challenge. My mission was to merge these disparate periods into a coherent whole. To embark on this enlightening journey, I immersed myself in Walter…

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Conservation Out of Conflict: White Mountains National Forest by Kady Ambrose

Setting my romantic WWI-era fantasy novel, All That Shimmers, in New Hampshire prompted extensive research into regional history, with a special focus on the White Mountains.The book is set in 1918 at Twin Birch House, a fictional lakeside grand hotel resort. Guests, staff and locals find escape and adventure in the surrounding White Mountain National Forest, where hidden magical characters also…

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WOMEN IN THE SHADOWS OF HISTORY by Lorraine Norwood

Thanks to Women’s Studies, we’ve brought them into the open. But are they now in peril? To paraphrase Virginia Woolf, “Anonymous” was a woman. She lived anonymously, participated anonymously in historic events, and came and went anonymously without leaving much of a mark. That is, until the burgeoning women’s movement of the 1970s fostered Women’s Studies, which in turn revealed extraordinary…

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How Women's Work Changed: From Home Life to Fighting for Rights (1780-1914) By Joan Fernandez

In researching my book on Jo van Gogh and her remarkable dedication to save her brother-in-law, Vincent van Gogh, and his artwork from obscurity, I needed to understand what societal restrictions existed around the ideas of work in the late nineteenth century. Jo’s story is taunt because of an undercurrent of resistance to her decision to become an art dealer—an occupation reserved exclusively…

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Spiritualism’s Ambiguous Legacy by Carolyn Korsmeyer

The information presented in today’s post comes from extensive research done by the author for her work of historical fiction, Riddle of Spirit and Bone. The spiritualist movement of nineteenth-century America produced more than table-tapping séances and ectoplasm. Composed of both sincere believers seeking to bring comfort to the bereaved as well as outright frauds aiming to take advantage of a…

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A Word From Wareeze Woodson

I love period romance and wanted to write something a little different from the standard with the Ton acting in traditional ways. I wanted adventure, abductions, thieves and danger both before and after the ball. In An Enduring Love, there is a harrowing journey to reach England, an evil villain and enough danger to keep the pages turning. In this story of long ago, a treasure of Roman coins…

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Vizcaya: Roaring 20's Glamor, a Fabulous Party Barge, and Inspiration for Villa Luca in Miami Interlude

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Allotment Annies: A homegrown hazard to servicemen during World War II by Anne Montgomery

While researching my World War II historical fiction novel Your Forgotten Sons, which was released June 6, 2024 in honor of the 80th anniversary of D-Day, I discovered an unexpected threat encountered by U.S. servicemen heading off to war. While they were confronted by many dangers on foreign soil, they were also at the mercy of some homegrown risks. Women who spent their time enticing men to…

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Release Day for Miami Interlude!!

Miami, Florida 1926 Between the heady days of the Florida land boom and its inevitable bust, a short period existed where those coming late to the game still dreamed of getting rich. Miami is the Magic City where it is believed anyone can become a millionaire. Della’s handsome young husband, Art, is one of those dreamers. His hopes hang on a fabulous party to which he and Della have been…

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Happy Thanksgiving!

For all of our readers in the US, wishing you and yours a wonderful time of fellowship with family and friends as we give thanks for our blessings!

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The Seventeenth Century – a time of turmoil and adventure in England and the American Colonies by Celia Martin

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Drawing on Primary Sources by John M. Cahill

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Carrying Health to the Country by Janis Robinson Daly

As I pored through the archival material of the Woman’s Medical College of PA (WMC), now owned by Drexel University after the WMC merged its operations with Drexel in 2014, I discovered the formation of the American Women’s Hospital unit. In 1917, at the height of World War I, sixty women doctors—many of them graduates of Woman’s Medical—nurses, other staff and even a woman dentist gathered…

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Americans & Australians Together in War by Elaine Aucoin Schroller

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A Most Complex Monarch: Louis XIV of France by Peggy Joque Williams

In the 17th century, King Louis XIV of France was desperate to have his own colony. He owned land in the New World, including the area we now call Canada. However, while a few French settler families had taken root there, New France was mostly populated by soldiers, fur traders, missionaries, and unmarried farmers. So Louis, or more correctly his First Minister of State, Jean-Baptiste Colbert,…

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The Impact of the USSC by Gail Ward Olmsted

I was first introduced to the United States Sanitary Commission (1861-1865) while doing research for my historical novel, Landscape of a Marriage. It is the mostly true story of my husband’s ancestor Frederick Law Olmsted, known primarily as the father of American Landscape Architecture. Although he went on to create hundreds of public parks, private estates, and the grounds of some of the…