bloshb

I know marine conservation, social media, social marketing, Russian, Adobe Creative Suite and Kung Fu.

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Women's Six Day Bicycle Races

Understanding how the races worked is one part of the puzzle, but I'm still missing info. Namely, who was racing, when, and where? So I'm combing through the Library of Congress's online newspaper database and making a similar list of women in six day races.

I’m more and more convinced that my new heroine will be a bicycle racer, so I’ve been looking up about women’s racing at the end of the nineteenth century. There is, in fact, a book on the subject of women in six-day bicycle races— but it doesn’t come out until October 2018! I even sent an email to the author in hopes of snagging an early review copy, but no dice. He did email me a copy of an…

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The Riotte Kerosene Bicycle Motor

The Riotte Kerosene Bicycle Motor

While I’m working out the plot for my new book, I’m also trying to figure out what exactly the machine my heroine’s father has invented looks like. I have in mind for it to be an early motorcycle, but my knowledge of motorcycles  and motors past and present is minimal. Fortunately my reliable friends at Google have scanned in volume 1 of The Horseless Age, a publication for the nascent automotive…

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Victorian women learning to ride a bike

More on women's cycling from old books and journals. For the lady who did want to ride, how would she get through the awkward phase of learning to ride gracefully without embarrassing herself publicly? By attending a cycling school or academy, where a (presumably male) teacher would assist her with balance behind sheltering walls.

More on women’s cycling from old books and journals. There are two popular topics regarding women and bikes: method of riding and choice of dress. Throughout the 1890s the debate rages on skirts vs bloomers/knickerbockers, what sort of cut to the skirts, bifurcated or not, how to keep your skirt out of the wheels, best bikes with skirtguards… There’s a lot of concern about looking unladylike…

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The Bloomer's Complaint

Here's another something I ran across while researching: sheet music from 1850 for "The Bloomer's Complaint: A Very Pathetic Song for Piano Forte". I've typed up the lyrics for easy reading -- if you happen to play piano and are interested in the music, it's on Google Books.

Here’s another something I ran across while researching bloomers and rational dress: sheet music from 1850 for “The Bloomer’s Complaint: A Very Pathetic Song for Piano Forte”. I’ve typed up the lyrics for easy reading — if you happen to play piano and are interested in the music, it’s right here on Google Books. Personally, I have no ability to read music, but I’m imagining it as ideally…

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Psycho Ladies Safety Bicycle

I'm finishing up my first historical romance and starting to draft the second in the series, which means I am back into research mode.

I’m finishing up my first historical romance and starting to draft the second in the series, which means I am back into research mode. Book two’s heroine is a cyclist, so I’ve been trying to figure out what she might be wearing — the 1890s is still a period of upheaval in ladies’ fashion, as corsets disappear and “rational dress” appears, and the advent of women’s bicycles leads to debate on…

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Victorian Wedding Rings

Victorian Wedding Rings Today’s research reading on Victorian wedding rings–and engagement rings–comes to you from pages 48-49 of The Jewelers’ Circular and Horological Review, Vol XV, No. 2, March 1884. I’ve reached a point in my current novel draft where the hero believes he has reason to purchase an engagement ring, so of course I went looking to make sure that was a thing in the 1890s, and to…

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The Artist, the Lady and the Tiger

In my reading about the zoo, I learned about the American painter Frederick Stuart Church, who regularly used the animals of the zoo as models. It seems he was quite fond of depicting young ladies in company with big cats. He wrote a rambling illustrated article about his work and experiences for Scribner’s Magazine in December 1893, Vol. XIV, No. 6, which I found entertaining and intriguing.…

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The Central Park Menagerie

Here's another historical article I'm sharing from my research reading on Gilded Age New York. This is from The Epoch, Vol. III, No. 73. June 29, 1888, and was written by William A. Conklin, Superintendent of the Central Park Menagerie from the 1860s through the 1880s.

Here’s another historical article I’m sharing from my research reading on Gilded Age New York. This is from The Epoch, Vol. III, No. 73. June 29, 1888, and was written by William A. Conklin, Superintendent of the Menagerie from the 1860s through the 1880s. I found it by turns informative, amusing, and sad. Conklin provides a history of the institution and is transparent about facts and figures,…

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The First Woman in the New York Yacht Club

For my historical romance in progress, I have a scene set on a steam yacht. I went looking for info about such vessels and settled upon a particular historical boat to use as a model in the scene – the Dungeness, owned by Mrs. Lucy Carnegie, widow of Pittsburgh steel magnate Andrew Carnegie’s brother Thomas. As I looked for more info about the boat, I ran across this wonderful article under the…

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Why I'm switching to romance

Why I’m switching to romance

Over the summer, as my child started to sleep through the night and my mental powers of cognition started to return, I did some hard thinking about my writing career and which direction I want to go. I wrote a business plan. I thought about numbers and I thought about the number of stories rattling around in my head, wanting to get out. Ultimately, I decided to set aside some writing projects I’d…

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Working on a Romance MFA Syllabus

Working on a Romance MFA Syllabus

This is a crosspost from romancemfa.com – head over there for more updates on my Romance MFA project! I’ve been working on my Romance MFA syllabus for over a month now. It hasn’t been a simple task: the number of books in the romance genre is overwhelming. I want to write historical romance: the number of historicals is overwhelming. I specifically want to write in the American Gilded Age: the…

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A lullaby for my infant son

A lullaby for my infant son

There are reasons that my literary output has been down lately; it’s because I’ve been focusing my creative powers in the biological realm. There is some possibility of crossover, however, as my new little muse has inspired this lullaby for the time of day which the Spanish refer to as la madrugada. Babies aren’t cute at 2 in the morning. This isn’t a song; this is a warning. Close your stupid…

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Twice Sorry - Russian Conspiracy Theories about Alaska

Twice Sorry – Russian Conspiracy Theories about Alaska

In 2003, as a bright-eyed young American studying abroad in Russia, I talked with a lot of Russians, looking for their cultural ideas of Alaska. “Byla nasha” — It was ours — was a common response. That’s true, but many of the stories floating around about former Russian America are less so. One story I heard was that the Russians never received the money for the colony. I certainly never heard a…

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The Legend of Sarila - Inuit inspired kid's film

The Legend of Sarila – Inuit inspired kid’s film

Recently I found a kid’s film called “The Legend of Sarila,” which takes its inspiration from the Canadian arctic.

The story arc is straight up hero’s journey: leave home, pass trials, gain knowledge, mysterious helper, return home with rewards and establish new order. That’s fine. There are some reasonable portrayals of the Arctic landscape: caribou, seals, lichen, wide open tundra landscape.…

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2014 Reading List

As I look back over my 2014 reading list — and my 2013 reading list for comparison — I’m feeling pretty good. I finished thirty-odd fiction books, plus eight non-fiction books and the usual assortment of half-read but not quite finished books. I read Part one of Don Quixote, for instance, while we were travelling in Spain, but it’s going to be a while before I make it through the second part…

My…

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Barcelona's Museums - So Much Culture!

Barcelona’s Museums – So Much Culture!

My taller half and I are on a two week trip to Spain and while he is at a Very Important Conference I am getting cultured. Like a yogurt. A yogurt that is visiting many of Barcelona’s Museums.

My first stop was the Museu Maritim de Barcelona, which was a triple dose of history. First, it’s a museum. Second, the building complex in which it is located became a museum in 1941 but had previously…

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Ready to march at PRIDE! #Seattle #kungfu #rainbows #straightally