Snowflakes by Eden Monroe

 

For book description and purchase information visit 

Eden Monroe Author Page 

Every snowflake is a unique creation, and Wilson Bentley (1865-1931) was the first known photographer to ever capture them on film. Bentley was a farmer, and so given his special connection with nature and his respectful appreciation of it, he helped science understand these magnificent ice crystals. He said of his work:

“Under the microscope, I found that snowflakes were miracles of beauty, and it seemed a shame that this beauty should not be seen and appreciated by others. Every crystal was a masterpiece of design and no one design was ever repeated. When a snowflake melted, that design was forever lost. Just that much beauty was gone, without leaving any record behind.”

Certainly lovely to look at, but how are individual snowflakes created in the first place? According to scijnks.gov/snowflakes/:  “A snowflake begins to form when an extremely cold water droplet freezes onto a pollen or dust particle in the sky. This creates an ice crystal. As the ice crystal falls to the ground, water vapor freezes onto the primary crystal, building new crystals - the six arms of the snowflake.”

As many as 200 ice crystals comprise each snowflake, and there are several basic shapes that begin their formation in the clouds. What they will eventually look like depends on temperature and humidity levels, constantly changing atmospheric conditions as they descend on different paths from the sky. So the chance that two natural snowflakes could have the same arrangement of water molecules is pretty remote. Similar, perhaps, but differing in details.

“Although the six-sided shape is always maintained, the ice crystal (and its six arms) may branch off in new directions….”

Snowflakes can also vary widely in size. The tiniest snowflakes are called diamond dust, suspended glittering in the air, and there are documented incidents of snowflakes reaching a remarkable diameter of two to six inches.

 

Snowflakes have always captured our imagination, and in the romantic suspense novel, Looking for Snowflakes, it’s all about a tiny poodle called Snowflakes. She got her name because she liked to chase down and catch these beautiful ice crystals on her tongue. High spirited and adorable, Snowflakes embodies the infectious spirit of Christmas with her never-ending supply of canine warmth and charm. Everyone loves her and it’s precisely because she is so irresistible that she finds herself in a terrible predicament, stolen from Cole’s vehicle on the day before Christmas:

“The security officer folded his arms. ‘I don’t know what your chances are of getting the dog back because there’s so little to go on, but I wish you all the luck in the world. What kind of dog was it?’

Cole sighed, dreading the news he would have to break very soon. ‘A small white poodle.’

The store manager had gotten to his feet behind his desk. ‘At least she’s not out running around loose. The temperature is supposed to drop fast tonight. It’s going to be a cold one.’

Minutes later Cole was back sitting in his truck. Poor little Snowflakes, he only hoped she was safe and that whoever took her would be kind. He shoved unpleasant images from his mind with an effort. He had to call Elsa right away and tell her what happened, but then just as quickly decided he couldn’t do it over the phone. She at least deserved to be told in person. She was not going to be happy and he couldn’t blame her. He wouldn’t be too happy either if that had happened to his dog.

He made his way to what was now Elsa’s place, alone, in Stoney Creek. He kept a sharp eye out for a tiny white dog on foot, hoping against hope, but of course there was nothing. No such luck to have the dog back safely in his care. He might as well face the music and be done with it. He could see that her car was in the drive when he pulled in and got out. He was glad she wasn’t in the window watching for them because she’d know immediately that something was wrong if he was walking to the door without the dog.

She answered on the second knock and looked at him strangely when she didn’t see Snowflakes. ‘Where’s the dog?’ she asked, checking the ground to see if she had walked to the door instead of being carried.

‘Can I come in?’

‘Certainly you can come in, but where’s Snowflakes?’

He stepped in and pulled the door shut behind him. ‘Elsa, I’m afraid I have some really bad news and I wanted to tell you in person rather than over the phone.’

She looked stricken. ‘What do you mean you have really bad news? I assume it’s about Snowflakes since she isn’t with you.’

‘It’s about Snowflakes. She was….’

‘Run over?’ she demanded, tears springing to her eyes. ‘Snowflakes is dead?’

He reached to put his arms around her but she deftly stepped out of his embrace, stiff as a poker so he dropped his arms. ‘No, she didn’t get hit by a car and as far as I know she’s not dead.’

“ ‘What do you mean as far as you know? What’s going on, Cole? Where’s my dog?’ ”

There is of course a close connection between snowflakes, the ones that fall from the sky and accumulate in cold climates, and the Christmas season. We have Charles Dickens to thank for our preference of a white Christmas. A Christmas Carol was written during the Victorian era when London and much of England was still experiencing what is referred to as the little ice age. That meant there was an abundance of snow on the ground, even a winter fair held on the Thames, frozen solid at that time in a country where the average winter temperature now is between 36-45 degrees Fahrenheit. And the small amount of snow that does fall in that area happens in January or February. However there is usually plenty of opportunity to see snowflakes in England, lots of them. In the North Pennines located in the northernmost section of the Pennnine range of hills running north to south through northern England, it usually snows about fifty-three days in the run of a year.

Snow or no snow, Dickens took only six weeks to write A Christmas Carol, seeing it through to publication in December of 1843. Struggling financially he felt the book would sell well, and indeed all 6,000 copies sold out in a week. But production costs were high considering its red fabric binding, gilt edges and coloured illustrations, so Dickens didn’t fare as well as he’d hoped when all of the pennies were finally counted.  But the book did achieve immortality, still popular 179 years later, as is the ideal he created for snow at Christmas.

Whether a backdrop to a story, or the actual story itself, snowflakes have also become a big part of our Christmas vernacular through song, immortalized in such timeless classics as: I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas (Irving Berlin); Let it Snow (Styne & Cahn); Frosty the Snowman (Autry, Rollins & Steve Nelson) and more. Who hasn’t sung along, given our fascination with snowflakes and their ability to transform our world at Christmas?

Snow may be synonymous with the festive season in many parts of the world, but of course nature’s frozen crystals can be enjoyed at any time during the winter months. That includes embracing them en masse in a postcard perfect setting; through a myriad of popular outdoor sports, or simply studying their dazzling beauty individually. For the latter all you need is black construction paper and a magnifying glass. Nature will provide the show, and what better way to enjoy some incredible natural artwork? Looking at Snowflakes could be a whole new winter pastime.

Mound Builders--New Discoveries, New Speculations

 

I am originally from south west Ohio, close to the big river which gave the State it's name. One of my happiest childhood memories is going on picnics to the many mounds built by that lost -- and until fairly recently -- mysterious, ancient people. I consider those early visits to the little museums that  sprung up in their vicinity, a major inspiration for my love of history.

Fly Away Snow Goose

Amazon

Kobo

Barnes & Noble

Smashwords

When I was small, we often visited Fort Ancient and the justly famous Serpent Mound, going there for family picnics. I remember one visit to Fort Ancient when I was disappointed not to see the skeletons that had been there before. My father - or perhaps my grandfather - read all the careful labelling to me, as the bones fascinated me. Together, we studied the worn teeth, the signs of arthrithis and injuries on the bones, caused, my elders explained, by hard work and chewing cornmeal full of stone ground grit. 

Serpent Mound

I'd spent a lot of time with these skeletons, lost in imagining what their lives had been like, so hard and so short. Most had died in the thirties, and I pictured them hauling the materials from which the mound had been so carefully constructed, or growing corn and hunting deer in the valley below. With the help of museum imagery, I imagined mothers in their bark houses, grinding corn, or tending to babies, and children learning from their elders and sometimes playing too. 

A docent explained that it would have taken 19 generations of workers to create that great "fort." Even in the fifties, it was shown in the dioramas that this massive construction was not a simple heap of earth, but had been constructed carefully, to some unknown plan, and begun with a strong, stable foundation of stone and timber. My father, an engineer, remarked on the skill involved and on how much earth had been moved by a people without draft animals, all of it carried in baskets on their backs, and steadied by a tump line wrapped around the forehead. 

The bones were gone, though, and I was disappointed. My family reminded me that the skeletons belonged to someone's family, and that it had been decided, after Indigenous complaints, to hide them away. "You wouldn't want your family dug up and displayed in a museum, would you?" (I don't know if these bones were re-buried as they often are today, but, back then, probably not.) Although I accepted this, the museum somehow seemed empty to me, as if people I had come to know were absent.

At that time, Mound Builders were considered a "mystery." Even the local Tribes - Miami and Seneca -had had no stories to tell curious settlers about who had built these mounds or what their fate had been. Over time, I learned that these ancient people built their mounds, not just in Ohio and Indiana, but all over the Mississippi drainage basin, from Louisiana to Georgia. Some are as far north as Canada! We are now learning that these mounds were great ceremonial centers, many used only seasonally, as centers for trading and religious festivals in honor of the Sun, Moon, and the Circle of the Year. In some places, actual cities formed in places like Cahokia, near St. Louis, Mo. and Poverty Point in Mississippi. These contained thousands of inhabitants, their numbers rivaling and often exceeding the size of the greatest European cities in existence at the same time. 

About twenty years ago, scientists began to see the mounds in new ways. As time had progressed, and ever more ancient sites were explored, it became apparent just how many people had been in the Americas before the Spanish arrived. The extent of the deaths caused by European "Guns, Germs & Steel,"* was at first estimated at a quarter of the native population, then at fifty percent, and now, the latest studies show that almost 95% of the original population of the Americas may have died!

Hernando DeSoto's two year travels searching for gold, spanned 1540-1542. He traveled from Florida's west coast through today's Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, and back over the Appalachians again into North Georgia, then on to Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. He left a record of all the numerous cities he saw, and of all the battles he fought along the way, as the Indians had swiftly learned to fear and resist him. The worst consequence of his visit was to spread smallpox and all the other European diseases, to which the Indians had no resistence, all along the way. 

By the 1600's, when English and French settlers began to enter these same areas, they found these once bustling cities standing empty.  The tribes who remained claimed to know nothing about the mounds, nor about those built them. Perhaps this was a kind of social amnesia after what had been, after all, a cultural apocalypse. Perhaps it was simply a refusal to share anything sacred with these invaders, who stole, murdered and enslaved whereever they went.

Since the early 2000's, more research has been conducted at various mound sites, including my childhood happy places, Fort Ancient and The Serpent Mound. Some of this research has been accepted by mainstream archeology, though much is still under review.  (As history teaches, new theories and discoveries often find difficulty in being accepted by the establishment.) Another new thread has been scientists discovering that the "old tales" that are still told by the few remaining Shamen to be found among modern American tribes are surprisingly synchronous with the stories and "myths" connected to European standing stones and mounds. It has begun to appear that ancient people alike, all over the world, carefully watched the skies for the same stars and the same seasonal changes.  

Now, Fort Ancient has many gaps in what have been for all these years assumed to be walls, but the new field of archeoastronomy has begun to demonstrate that these openings were set where they are in order to observe the rising and setting of certain stars and star groups, ones associated with death rituals and the safe passage of the soul into the Other World. At the Serpent Mound, these same sightlines are set at the apex of each curve the great snake, himself a symbol of the underworld. 

Astonishingly similar to many ancient Egyptian beliefs, these same stars guide the soul into the land of the ancestors, using the Milky Way and the same stars which were so important to the Egyptians, such as Sirius and Deneb. A glowing circle where the cloudy shine of another galaxy is visible to the naked eye, was, to those ancestral people, the goal of each and every traveling soul.  

Juliet Waldron

All my books @

Kobo

Smashwords

Amazon 

Barnes and Noble

Indian Mounds of the Middle Ohio Valley, A guide to the Mounds and Earthworks of the Adena, Hopewell, Cole, & Fort Ancient People, Published 2002, by Susan Woodward and Jerry N. McDonald

Guns, Germs & Steel, Pulitzer Prize Winner 2002, by Jared Diamond

https://www.amazon.com/Guns-Germs-Steel-Fates-Societies-ebook/dp/B06X1CT33R/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2I4CR3L33JWN9&keywords=jared+diamond+books&qid=1669681681&sprefix=Jared+Diamond%2Caps%2C76&sr=8-1

And for some convincing speculation:

The Path of Souls, Gregory Little 

https://www.amazon.com/Path-Souls-American-Skeletons-Smithsonian/dp/0965539253/ref=asc_df_0965539253/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312174369544&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=6480905854475676947&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9006604&hvtargid=pla-567617217296&psc=1

Keeping Track of All the Books You Read By Connie Vines #WritingTips, #BWLAuthorBlog, #Tips for Readers

 If you are like me, you read so many books/ebooks during the year.

Fiction, nonfiction, cookbooks, craft books, and in my case, manuals and instructional materials.

I struggle to recall what print books are shelved in bookcases and what paperback novels I have scattered around the house. 

How difficult can it be, you scoff.

The closet in my office is a bookcase. Floor-to-ceiling, which takes up one entire wall of the room. Plus, the 4 additional standing bookcases in numerous other rooms.

And then there are the eBooks. I own a Kindle, a Nook, and an Apple tablet, which house the works of my favorite fiction authors, and sample reads.

You can see where this is leading....how many times have I re-purchased a book?

I'll give you an example. There is a western novelist (who shall remain nameless); books have always been must-reads for me.

There was one novel (I can't recall the title, which was part of the problem 😉). I purchased the original hardbound via a book club, then a paperback version. A few years later, the book was republished with an updated cover (paperback and hardbound). 

Yep. I bought them all. (remember, this is only one case in point.) since the books were new, my father received a hardbound copy on his birthday, and several paperbacks were given prizes at the local library fund-raiser event.

Lists, log books, etc., were a real pain and never foolproof. 

📚

It was quite by accident that I located a free app. Book Buddy.

The reviews were glowing, so I decided to give it a try.

I paid a small fee for additional storage because I was uploading so books.  

Why do I love this app?

I can track who I've loaned a book to, my reading status on each book, my next read,

Favorites, Series Titles, books I've donated (my personal tracking addition),

You simply scan the ISBN, and all the info uploads. 

If it's without the current 13-digit ISBN, you snap a picture of the cover and add some information.

It's also available on my phone. This will be a great help when I'm Christmas shopping this year!

Remember to check out all of BWL's November and December new releases! Get those stocking stuffers early--there are only 26 shopping days...📅 🎅🎄

BWL has a BIG sale on Smashwords: Connie Vines.

.

Connie's BWL Author Page: https://bookswelove.net/vines-connie/

Happy Reading!

Connie

Connie Vines's Blog and links

Books as Holiday gifts – by Vijaya Schartz

 

Vijaya's latest release.
 Find it HERE

Whether it’s a stocking stuffer novel, a kindle gift sent to a friend faraway, or the wrapped gift of a complete paperback series, if you know the favorite genre of the avid readers among your family and friends, books make wonderful gifts.

Maybe it’s the story they talked about but never got to buy for themselves. Maybe it’s the new release in a series they started and loved. Or you can surprise them with a book you enjoyed and want to share with them. In any case, it’s becoming simpler and easier than ever to gift books.

You can do it from your laptop or phone, order online from your favorite retailer, and have it shipped or emailed. It takes little time and effort. It will be appreciated on cold, snowy, or rainy days.

Going with a reliable publisher, like BWL Publishing, will ensure it’s a quality book. Other ways to select a good book is considering the author’s track record. Award-winning authors usually deliver consistent quality reads. You can also read the ratings and reviews shared by other readers on the retail sites.

The most difficult part of this process is selecting the right genre and the right titles. Find out if you friend likes cozy mysteries, romance, action/adventure, Historical novels, fantasy, science fiction, or a mix of genres.

I write in many genres and also like to mix them. From contemporary romance to realistic Celtic legends, to space opera and science fiction, including even felines in some of my stories. But each author brings his or her personal touch to the writing, and if you like an author in one genre, chances are you will like that author’s other writings as well.

Here are some suggestions from my popular writings:

Curse of the Lost Isle series (Celtic legends – Edgy medieval)
amazon - B&N - Smashwords - Kobo

Chronicles of Kassouk series (Sci-fi romance)
amazon - B&N - Smashwords - Kobo

Azura Chronicles series (Set on another planet – includes cats - androids - romantic elements)
amazon - B&N - Smashwords - Kobo

Byzantium series (Set on a space station - cats – action - sweet romance for all ages)
amazon - B&N - Smashwords - Kobo

Archangel twin books (Aliens and angels in a contemporary setting)
amazon - B&N - Smashwords - Kobo

Romance (rated R)
amazon - B&N - Smashwords - Kobo

 

Happy Holidays with books!

Vijaya Schartz, award-winning author
Strong Heroines, Brave Heroes, cats
http://www.vijayaschartz.com
amazon - B&N - Smashwords - Kobo - FB 

A short trip away--Tricia McGill

Find all my books on my BWL author page

My next book is due out in December, and I await its publication date with trepidation—as always. Because I lost my little dog not long ago, I decided it was time to go on a short road trip before I considered whether to get a new companion or not. The original idea was to take the ferry to Tasmania for the umpteenth time as my next work in progress will be set there and I figured it would be worth another visit to Port Arthur, site of the penitentiary where my book will begin. Unfortunately, as the ferry terminal has changed locations the trip to Tassie had to be abandoned, for the available dates did not fit into my travelling companions’ time-table or mine.

So off we went instead along Victoria’s Great Ocean Road. The last time I made this trip was quite some years ago, in fact 22 years, and I was amazed at how our southern coastline has changed through the years. The coastline is slowly but surely eroding and falling into the sea. Where once we could leave the car in the carpark and walk a few paces to take in the view, now the road has been relocated so far back from the coast that it involves a long trek. This is the same wherever you go along Australia’s southern coastline.

Some visitors to our country may have taken this road trap, perhaps to view what was once the Twelve Apostles and is now drastically reduced in numbers—or perhaps lovers of surfing would hone in on Torquay. It still remains one of Victoria’s most scenic drives in parts. 

On the way back inland, we had a surprise when we spotted a koala sitting in the road. The poor chappie looked slightly dazed, and we wondered if perhaps he had escaped the floods that are currently sweeping through our country. Of course, we stopped with the hope of encouraging him/her back into the trees, and soon two other carloads of travellers had stopped with the same idea. To our complete surprise the creature decided to climb up one man’s trouser leg and cling to his shirt. Eventually the man was able to place the koala on the trunk of a nearby tree. We can only hope that it returns to its favoured habitat safely. The numbers of these little creatures are in such decline every one saved is a blessing.

My Web Page

Remembrance Day

  https://bookswelove.net/martin-paula/ 

Remembrance Day

 Earlier this month, Remembrance Day was observed in the UK and in many Commonwealth countries. It commemorates the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month – 11am on November 11th 1918 – when the guns fell silent along the Western and Eastern fronts in Europe. An armistice had been signed, and the Great War had ended, after over four years of the bloodiest warfare ever.

There is an almost cruel irony in the fact that the first and also some of the last shots of the war were fired within fifty metres of each other in a small village called Casteau near the Belgian town of Mons which I visited several years ago.

On August 22nd 1914, a British cavalry troop, the 4th Dragoon Guards, were involved in the first skirmish with the Germans at Casteau. During this short battle, Captain E Thomas fired at the enemy, and killed a German cavalry officer.

Over 4 years of conflict later, on the morning of November 11th, 1918, a Canadian Infantry Battalion were on the trail of retreating German soldiers, and after firing their final shots, they stopped firing at 11 o’clock at the village of Casteau.

In between those first and last shots in this small Belgian village, hundreds of thousands lives had been lost in the trenches and battlefields on the Western and Eastern fronts.

                                                                         1914 Dragoon Guards Memorial           1918 Canadian Memorial

In 1915 Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, a Canadian medical officer, wrote a poem after presiding over the funeral of a friend who died in the Second Battle of Ypres:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row, 

That mark our place; and in the sky 

The larks, still bravely singing, fly 

Scarce heard amid the guns below. 

The reference to the red poppies that grew over the graves of fallen soldiers in France and Belgium led to the poppy becoming one of the world's most recognized memorial symbols for soldiers who have died in conflicts.

In Britain, a Festival of Remembrance is held at the Royal Albert Hall in London on the Saturday nearest to November 11th. It commemorates all who have lost their lives in conflicts. Part concert, part memorial service, it concludes with a parade of representatives of all the armed forces as well as the uniformed volunteer organisations. Once they are all in place in the large arena, there is a two minute silence, and thousands of poppy petals are released from the roof. It is said there is one poppy petal for each person who has died in conflicts during and since the First World War.

The following morning, a memorial service is held at the Cenotaph in London’s Whitehall, and at the same time, similar services are held at hundreds of war memorials in every part of the country, and also wherever British troops are serving overseas.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

(Lawrence Binyon)

Find me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/paulamartinromances

Link to my Amazon author page:  author.to/PMamazon  

 

Be Kind to Yourself by Joan Donaldson-Yarmey

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.bookswelove.com/donaldson-yarmey-joan/
 

Writers are sometimes hard on themselves when it comes to their writing. As a writer I can be my own worst critic. One moment I think I am writing something great and the next it will seem like the most boring stuff. Sometimes I look at other writer’s books and wish I could write like them.

Over the years I’ve tried to keep to the following rules. These might help any new or experienced writer.

No. One: Remember every writer, whether a best seller or a working-hard-at-becoming-a-best-seller, started their very first book with a blank page.

No. Two: Don’t try to write your novel in one sitting, or one month, or even one year. Give yourself time to enjoy the experience, to change the story line, if need be, as you progress, and to get to know your characters. I attended a romance writing course and the speaker, who wrote for Harlequin, said you should know everything about your main character, even what type of toothpaste she uses.

No. Three: Sometimes, now is not the time to write the book you’re sure will be the next great best seller. Sometimes you need to put in more time learning the craft, like how to write good dialogue, how to flesh out your characters, and how to decide which is the best location to set your story.

No. Four: It is nice to have a set schedule for writing, whether it’s from 5-7am before work, 8-10pm after the children are in bed, but sometimes that won’t always work. Some authors write twenty minutes here and there throughout the day. Some try for two hours Saturday morning and an hour Wednesday evening. Find what works best for you and try to stick to it as best you can.

No. Five: Whatever language you write in, make sure your language skills are up to par. I write in English and all my life I knew that when a person nodded their head, they agreed and when they shook their head they disagreed. In some books I’ve seen where the character shook their head yes and nodded their head for no.

No Six: Try to have a separate space for your writing even if it is a corner in your dining room or bedroom. That way when you are there you know you have replaced you mom or dad hat, or your friend hat, or your working hat with your writing hat.

No. Seven: Back-up your work whether it be on a thumb drive, or the cloud, or even an email to yourself. I’ve read of many writers who have lost whole chapters or multiple chapters due to their computer crashing. Don’t let that happen to you.

No. Eight: Most of all be kind to yourself. Not every word you write is going perfect, not every story your write is going to be a masterpiece. But each time you finish a project you can tell yourself: “You Did it!!Good Job!!”

On Writing Historical Fiction by Victoria Chatham

 

AVAILABLE HERE

I was recently asked why I  chose to write historical novels, and I needed to think about the answer. The truth is, I was not too fond of history when I was in school. Other than the Norman invasion of England in 1066 and Columbus sailing the ocean blue in 1492, dates meant nothing to me. I don’t think I once correctly listed the succession of kings starting with Edward 1. Nor could I tell you the dates of the Wars of the Roses or the Great Fire of London. As for the English Civil War, without resorting to Google, I can only tell you that the combatants were the Parliamentarians, or Roundheads, led by Oliver Cromwell, on one side and the Royalists, or Cavaliers, who supported Charles 1, on the other.

The first historical novel I remember reading was The Sun in Splendour by Jean Plaidy, and, for

Amazon.ca

once, history came alive. After that, I started looking more closely at historical fiction and found that history was not just about dates. It was about people who had lived in different eras, whether they were rich, privileged people at the top of the tree, or the lowly commoner. Catherine Cookson set most of her novels in Northeast England. Georgette Heyer’s characters populated London and wherever their country seats might be, while several had adventures in France or Spain. I enjoyed C.S. Forester’s Horatio Hornblower, who served in His Majesty’s Royal Navy and then the adventures of Bernard Cornwall’s British soldier, Sharpe.  

In writing my historical novels, I have envied colleagues who still have family papers, whether letters or diaries. In my family, very little of our history survives. Thanks to dedicated cousins on my mother’s and father’s sides of my family, I know something of it now. As much as I enjoy research, building family trees was never something I wanted to get into, possibly because of all those dates of births, marriages, and deaths, or hatches, matches and despatches, as my maternal grandmother used to say.

History may seem like a thing of the past, but the truth is we live in history all the time, and what we know today may make dusty reading for some teenagers in the future. While we hark back to the Regency or Victorian eras, more recent histories set during WWII are still popular. I won’t apologize for referencing English history because that is what I know best, but history happens everywhere. Ancient Egypt was the setting for several novels by Pauline Gedge and Wilbur Smith, the latter giving a vivid depiction of South Africa in many more of his novels.

History can be fascinating whether you enjoy it in fiction or non-fiction, movies or television series. Wherever you find it, I hope you enjoy it too.

Victoria Chatham

  AT BOOKS WE LOVE

 ON FACEBOOK

 MY WEBSITE