Cover image: Ulysses and the Sirens by John William Waterhouse (1891) Please note, this post will contain some spoilers for Shores of Chaos: Darkness Follows. One of the narratives throughout Shores of Chaos: Darkness Follows involves beings from Greek mythology. In Shores of Chaos: Shipwrecked, I briefly touched on Elysia's background as a siren and her… Continue reading Greek Mythology: Sirens and Chaos
Cover image of the White House after President Gardfield's death. (Courtesy of Billion Graves) A major theme in my new novel, Shores of Chaos: Darkness Follows, is death. The societal customs and industry that accompanied death changed dramatically in the Victorian period. Prior to this period and during the early part of it, it was… Continue reading Death and Mourning in Victorian America
Cover image from the film Dr. Mabuse (1922), directed by Fritz Lang. Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis Because my novel Shores of Chaos: Darkness Follows takes place in 1902, I couldn’t help but include a séance scene. But séances were only a part of the much larger Spiritualism movement that started in the mid 19th century and lasted… Continue reading A New Religion: Spiritualism
Cover image of a 1960s carnival. (Courtesy of http://www.docsmidwaycookhouse.com) As with part one of Shores of Chaos, I included some customs and entertainment from the turn of the century in Darkness Follows. For one, circuses and carnivals gained popularity during this time. Many carnivals can trace their roots to the World’s Columbian Exposition held in… Continue reading Carnivals and Freaks: A History
I’ll admit when writing Shores of Chaos: Shipwrecked, I was driven by nostalgia for my love of all things related to the seashore. Two of those things are the boardwalk and seaside amusement parks. I personally have always loved walking up and down the boardwalks, looking for cool things to buy or fun games to… Continue reading A Good Ole Time: Seaside Amusements and Boardwalks
Above image: Poster from the Sandow Trocadero Vaudevilles , 1894 A fun thing I included in one of the chapters of my novel Shores of Chaos: Shipwrecked is a turn of the century vaudeville show. American Vaudeville was an entertainment form in the United States from the 1880s to the 1930s. Vaudeville shows consisted of… Continue reading Come One, Come All to the Story of American Vaudeville!
Above image: Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in Morris Plains, NJ, demolished 2015 Something I decided to add to the final draft of Shores of Chaos: Shipwrecked was the 19th century insane asylum. For most of us when we think of the typical Victorian or Gilded Age insane asylum, we think of grim, filthy places where… Continue reading The Evolution of the American Insane Asylum
Shores of Chaos: Shipwrecked came about from my love of lighthouses and all things related to the seashore. I went to my first lighthouse when I was about eleven and have been enchanted by their architectural design and their purpose for existence ever since. I chose to set my story in the 1890s as this… Continue reading A Brief History of Lighthouses
So now that my book has been released on Amazon, I’ll share some more of the historical details with you on the subject matter. I’ll try not to give away too many spoilers in this post, but do not read further if you don’t want any. In this post I will attempt to give you… Continue reading The Parkers, Why Were They Accused?
*Cover image: Detail from T. H. Matteson's "The Trial of George Jacobs, Austust 5th, 1692'' In my previous blog post, Interesting Things I Learned about the Salem Witch Trials and the Puritans, I briefly discussed how 17th century Puritans were more supportive and tolerant of the mentally ill than later generations. In this post, I… Continue reading The Puritans and Mental Illness
Here’s a quick little list of what I like best about writing and some things I find hard about it. I’ll be taking Labor Day off, so see you in two weeks! Hardest- Writer’s block Any writer will agree that getting stuck during the writing process sucks. You’re on a roll, the ideas are… Continue reading The Best and Hardest Things about Writing
(Cover image: Statue of Rebecca Nurse and her sisters at the Salem Wax Museum) During the course of my research of the Salem Witch Trials I found out some interesting things that I think would be fun to share with you all. Likewise, there are some random but fascinating facts about the Puritans that I… Continue reading Interesting Things I Learned about the Salem Witch Trials and the Puritans
New Jersey is famous for many things, but its history should get more recognition. There are several places in New Jersey that are the site of where an important event took place or are home to buildings of historical significance. In what I plan on being a series of posts, I will talk about many… Continue reading Visiting New Jersey’s Historic Sites- Part I
I want to take you all on a journey through my writing process. I’ll get a bit long winded in this, but hopefully you’ll find some of it interesting. It may even give some of you greater insight when reading my novels. Proceed if you dare. Any story starts with inspiration. Being a historical fiction… Continue reading My Chaotic Writing Process
If you’re a nerd like me (I used to say “I’m a nerd and proud of it” back in high school, that’s how much of a nerd I am), then researching a historical topic you’ve been interested in since you were a little kid can be a fun journey. But if you’re also like me,… Continue reading Fun and Frustration: Researching the Salem Witch Trials
Genavieve Blackwood's Author Website 