‘Trash History’: Historical Accuracy in Film and Fiction

Thought it might not look like it, this idealized painting of the first Thanksgiving is historically inaccurate. According to the notes, the costume of the Pilgrims is inaccurate and Wompanoag Native Americans depicted in the painting would not have worn the feather bonnets nor would they have been sitting on the ground. Painted during WWI, …

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Science, Ghosts and Haunted Houses: Three 19th Century Classic Women Horror Writers

Photo Credit: Mr. T. P. Cooke, of the Theatre Royal Covent Garden, in the character of the monster in the dramatic romance of Frankenstein, 1823 production of Presumption; or, the fate of Frankenstein, lithograph reproduction of an original painting by Nathanial Whittock and Thomas Charles Wageman, The New York Public Library: Tronvillian/ Wikimedia Commons/PD Old …

Catalyst For A Series: My Unexpected “Aha!” Moment from The Blackwater Lightship

Photo Credit: Dark light… come shine in her lost heart tonight, taken on 26 November 2016 by Nikk: The Maniac Macrographer/Flickr/CC BY 2.0 I’ve talked quite a bit about inspiration on my blog. In this blog post I discuss how I believe inspiration is something you don’t sit around and wait for but go out and …

What’s in a Tagline? Picking Apart My Tagline

Photo Credit: Woman with veil, dark Gothic fantasy image, uploaded December 24, 2014 by LoganArt: LoganArt/ Pixabay/CC0 1.0 Last week, the Sisters in Crime organization held a webinar for authors about author branding. The idea of “branding” is relatively new buzzword in business and marketing (when it comes to people rather than products, that is) but …

Happy New Year!!! (Plus 2019 Blog Updates)

Photo Credit: Hip, hip, hurra! Kunstnerfest på Skagen, Peder Severin Kroyer, 1888, oil on canvas, Gothenburg Museum of Art, Gothenburg, Sweden: Thuresson/Wikimedia Commons/PD Art (PD old 100) First off, here’s wishing everyone a happy New Year!!! I know that 2018 was a tough year for me and I think it was a tough year for …

An Individual: Gladys Cooper

***This post is part of What a Character! Blogathon 2018, hosted by the Once Upon a Screen…, the Paula’s Cinema Club, and the Outspoken and Freckled blogs. *** ***Some spoilers*** “‘Retire? Whatever for?… Who cares how old I am? Who cares how long it was since I first played Peter Pan?’” (Gladys Cooper, as quoted in …

Blog Break and Series Fact Sheet

Photo Credit: Illustration from “The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton”, Sydney Paget, Strand Magazine, 1904: Sebastian Wallroth/Wikimedia Commons/PD Art (PD Old 100) Thank you to all the wonderful people who are continuing to check out my blog. The support and encouragement has been overwhelming! I will be traveling abroad for the next several months so …

Not The Angel in the House: De Havilland as Charlotte Bronte in Devotion (1946)

***This post is part of The Third Annual Olivia De Havilland Blogathon, hosted by the In The Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood and Phyllis Loves Classic Films blogs. *** ***Some spoilers*** “Let me introduce you to the real Charlotte Brontë. She was not a wallflower in mourning. She always wanted to be famous; she pined …

Adventurous Perception: The Individual Creative Process

Photo Credit: Photograph of Maurits (M.C.) Escher, around 23 Nov. 1971. Photograph probably made by Hans Peters (ANEFO), Ga het na (Nationall Archief NL): Vysotsky/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY SA 3.0 Many artists talk about the creative process. It’s one of those illusive ideas that fascinates non-artists and weighs heavily on the minds of artists because creativity …

The Emotional Badlands of Language, or, Language is Not Just Data

Photo Credit: Canadian singer Leonard Cohen in Trouville-sur-Mer (Normandy, France), taken 26 January 1988 by Roland Godefroy: Teddyyy/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 3.0 “If words are the arrow, we ourselves — our interior landscapes, our outward actions, the authenticity of our lives — are the bow.” (Popova, par. 1) As many of my blog readers know, I …