Category: History
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A Heroine of Her Time
Recently, another writer complimented the heroine in my novel when she read the first few chapters. She said, “I absolutely LOVE that Esther is not a 21st century heroine stuck in 1911! I can’t tell you how annoying it is to read about a character whose beliefs/thoughts/feelings are just not realistic for the specified time…
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COVID-19 and American Memory
The last romantic comedy I read (Shipped by Angie Hockman…super fun, I recommend it!) was set in 2019. The publishing industry runs a couple years behind “real time,” so despite its 2021 release, the novel was likely written well before 2019. But it also felt like a very deliberate decision to set the book before the…
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Saturday Six #23: Twentieth Century Historical Fiction
I didn’t realize the 20th century had become such a popular setting for historical fiction, until I looked back and saw that six of the last seven I’ve read fit that description, all of which I’ve read this year. Honestly, this gives me a boost of confidence, considering my finished novel and the one I’m…
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Saturday Six #15: Freighter Fun Facts
Sometimes I’m on the fence about doing research for my historical novels. I absolutely love making discoveries that will fit into the books, but I confess to being a terrible nonfiction reader. It takes me forever to complete research, whether using primary or secondary sources, and I get distracted very easily. It’s a wonder I…
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Welcome to Downton
Would you believe that just a week or so ago, I finished watching Downton Abbey for the first time? It always seemed strange to my friends and relatives that, being the historical fiction lover that I am, I had not seen a single minute of the series. I lost count of the number of people…
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When the Story Becomes Real
Recently I visited a local historic site for the first time. The structure was built in the 1880s, and for the next 70 years, it served as a center of education for African-American students, first from the town, and later, the entire county and regions beyond. It’s a history we’ve all heard, of “separate but…
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A Victorian Valentine
For my 9-5 job, I work for our town’s department of museums on the education team. Most of what we do is to take education programs out to all of the schools in our county, with a different theme each month. For the first half of February, we are doing lessons about Victorian Valentines. Let me…
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Boston, 1990
Our family vacation in the summer of 1990 was a road trip from southeast Michigan, through Ohio and Pennsylvania, to Boston, with a quick stop at the Statue of Liberty. What a whirlwind! I never really thought about it until I had kids of my own, but that was a pretty ambitious road trip, considering…
Andrea Green · Romance Author 