History is a really cool place to wander. You learn all sorts of interesting facts and you can make connections between previously unrelated events, people and places. So what has me excited now? The French Foreign Legion. In a lot of Victorian romances, the disgraced hero or the bad boy would escape their soiled reputation […]
French by Spilled Blood Read More »
All Of Time And The Whole World, Too When you’re writing time travel novels, deciding where and when in history your main characters are going to travel back to can be an overwhelming decision. After all, the author can pick any time in history — that’s about twelve thousands years of human history, right there.
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Lá Fhéile Pádraig = “the Day of the Festival of Patrick” — Saint Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland, which is where the wearing of the green comes into it. (Also, green beer. ugh.) Patrick was a Roman British man who was enslaved and taken to Ireland, where he found God. He escaped Ireland
There are approximately five million people with February 29 birthdays. They’re known as leapers. (As distinct from lepers, but that’s a little bit too close for comfort!) It used to be that leapers had issues with insurance companies and banks and other big organizations, who wouldn’t (or couldn’t) recognize February 29 as a legitimate birth
I’ve been running this blog for a long time. If you include the occasional break from blogging, and the times when my site host shut me down for too much traffic (yes, they can do that), then I’ve been blogging since 2005. Most of the older posts are now articles on the Articles pages. Out
On the blog…Two Years Ago Read More »
It’s Chinese New Year today, and this year is the year of the Monkey. The Monkey is the ninth in the 12-year cycle of Chinese zodiac. The Years of the Monkey include 1920, 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004, 2016, 2028… The monkey is a clever animal. It is usually compared to a smart
Year of the Monkey Read More »
I’m pretty sure everyone knows who Nero was — he was the emperor who “fiddled while Rome burned” — although whether he actually fiddled or simply procrastinated while the great fire of Rome razed most of the city to the ground is open to dispute. But everyone pretty much agrees that Nero was a fairly
While Rome Burned…. Read More »
1066 is a date that tends to stick in my mind. It’s a significant date in British history, because it’s the year of the Battle of Hastings, when the Anglo-Saxons were defeated, and England came under the control of the Normans. This is also the start of the Medieval period. Most of the Anglo-Saxons became
A Short-Lived Reign Read More »
Silent Night is probably one of the world’s most famous and beloved Christmas carol. There is an awe and majesty in the tune that really fits with the lyrics, and if a really good singer is performing the carol solo, it can send shivers down your back. If you’ve ever witnessed the first snowfall of
Thirty-five years ago today, John Lennon was shot dead by an unbalanced man named Mark David Chapman, who shot him four times in the back outside his New York apartment, then sat and waited for the police to arrive, and read The Catcher in the Rye, which he said was his statement. The photo, right,
Strawberry Fields Forever. Read More »