Resources
The following is a list of blogs and other resources I have found useful. Some are focused on reading, others on writing, and a few on the research I did for my novels.
Enjoy!
Reading
Writing Craft & Industry
Others
Reading
- Historical Novel Society offers a rich source of book reviews, articles and insights on historical fiction.
- Historical Fiction Reader is Erin Davies’ blog on books in this genre. Erin is a wonderful supporter of the genre and a voracious reader.
- Passages to the Past is Amy Bruno’s wonderful blog on reading. Amy also runs Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours – a great source of news and reviews on the latest releases.
- Sarah Johnson’s Reading the Past offers news, views, and reviews of historical fiction. Watch for her roundups of upcoming novels and her thoughts on trends relating to historical fiction.
- Washington Independent Review of Books offers a wide range of reviews and news on both fiction and non-fiction and both contemporary and historical.
Writing Craft & Industry
- One of my favorite sites is Emma Darwin’s This Itch of Writing. Emma generously shares her knowledge of the craft of writing in both brief and in-depth posts on everything from point-of-view to the Oxford comma. She also has a series on Write Your First Novel.
- Jane Friedman is well known in the writing world for her insights on the publishing industry and her writing advice. At the Historical Novel Society conference in June 2021, Jane offered tips and techniques for self-publishing to an eager audience.
- I have several books on my shelves about the craft of writing. A few favorites:
- Write Away by Elizabeth George who is well-known for her Inspector Lynley mysteries
- Stephen King – no need to tell you who he is! – gives great practical advice in his book On Writing
- Take Off Your Pants – Libbie Hawker’s prescriptive approach to outlining.
- Write Like the Masters – William Cane shares tips and techniques based on famous authors like Hemingway, Dickens, Wharton and others.
- The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman is a great resource aimed to help you polish the first five pages of a manuscript in order to get an agent or an editor’s attention.
Others
- A site I subscribe to and enjoy is Janine Marsh’s The Good Life France. An amazing source of all things French including travel, food, life, history, places to stay and so much more.
- The history of Hong Kong is wonderfully preserved in photos and articles on a site called Gwulo: Old Hong Kong
- With three novels set during WWI, one of my go-to sites was First World War an incredibly rich source of documents, battlefield maps, timelines, diaries, and who’s who.
- Victorian Paris is explored in detail on Iva Polansky’s blog. You can read about Paris night life, women’s lingerie, morality, the servant life and much more.
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