History comes into the story – CounterClockwise: A Blast From The Past Romance

Cigarettes

A social trend that was just starting. Cigarettes were becoming popular around the mid 19th century in most parts of the civilized world. An offspring to cigars, cigarettes were smaller and easier to handle, more convenient size to carry around, and as time went on, made with processed tobacco and filters so they were also…

Fountain Pens

A very cool tool back in the day. Mid nineteenth century United States was a time of great invention and great change. Writing letters was still the number one way to communicate whether it was personal, business, official or whatever the nature. So when the fountain pen hit the scene in 1830 in Birmingham,…

Waltzing In His Arms

Romance at its best. To this day there’s nothing that can be more intimate or truly romantic than dancing a waltz with your special someone. The music just flows and it’s like you’re whisked away to another world. Yes, I love it! In CounterClockwise, my characters do attend dances, especially as the series continues and…

A Letter From Nora Wells

One woman’s point of view. In this blog post I’ve written a letter from one of my support characters in my CounterClockwise series, Nora Wells. This letter answers what could be any reader’s question about what it was like to live in the United States in the 1840s. Namely, those living in the 21st Century…

Hand Kissing

Sweet and flattering. Women in 19th century America, and around the world for that matter, never failed to swoon at least a little when a man paid her this honor. Yes it was both sweet and flattering! Originating in Poland in the 17th century, hand kissing is something that has been given many different meanings….

Corsets In the 19th Century

Pulling it all in. That’s what the woman of 1840 and indeed women for many decades after that, wanted to do most of all. The idea of a tiny waistline was en vogue for lots of reasons. One of them I believe is that it automatically gave dressmakers work by way of adding tucks in…