A Personal Connection to WWI
When I started work on The Spider and the Sparrow, I began a ton of research about World War One. I enjoyed learning new things and gained a better understanding of what the… Continue reading
Category Archive: History
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Pictures of the Great War
I had a pleasant surprise while researching my latest novel, The Spider and the Sparrow. It turns out that a lot of contemporary accounts and images from World War One are no longer… Continue reading
100 years ago today . . .
100 years ago today, a sickly young man with a mission wandered the streets of Sarajevo. Gavrilo Princip, a young Bosnian Serb, wasn’t happy with Austro-Hungarian rule. Relations between Serbia and the Austro-Hungarian… Continue reading
Star-Spangled Summer Adventure
If you look hard enough, you can always find an anniversary for an interesting historical event, but 2014 seems to be full of special dates. We just commemorated the 70th anniversary of D-day,… Continue reading
The 70th Anniversary of D-day
Seventy years ago today, American, British, and Canadian troops stormed the beaches of Normandy, France in the largest amphibious invasion in history. It wouldn’t be overly dramatic to say they were on a… Continue reading
How to Code Messages Like a WWII Spy
This blog post will take you through the steps of encoding a message using double transposition, just like British and American spies did in WWII. Should you feel like trying it out, it… Continue reading
I have a new title, and a map
The title for my third novel was finalized last month: Deadly Alliance. I like it. A lot. No, it wasn’t one of my suggestions, but I’m completely OK with that. I have a fascination with titles… Continue reading
Things not to do if you’re an agent in a Nazi-occupied country
This past summer I read a nonfiction book about several British agents who went into France during WWII as part of the Special Operations Executive. SOE was created by Winston Churchill to “set… Continue reading
A Post About Alexanders
This blog post revolves around two very different subjects that have come up for me this month. Their connection: the name Alexander. The first is Alexander the Great. My husband and I both enjoy… Continue reading
The 69th Anniversary of D-day
Last year I posted some pictures my sister took of the WWII memorial in Washington DC. Now that another anniversary of D-day has rolled around, I thought I’d post those pictures and captions again.… Continue reading
Happy Memorial Day and some Sworn Enemy Links
Memorial Day I know it’s not Memorial Day yet, but the weekend is about to start, and I expect most people won’t be at their computers on Monday, so I wanted to post… Continue reading
Sweeney Todd, Sherlock Holmes, and Stephen Ambrose
A friend of mine asked me about the name of one of my characters, Sherlock. He’s in Sworn Enemy, a British medic and a paratrooper, and his real name is Richard Holmes. I… Continue reading
What’s in a Name? Part Two: Commander Courage and Other Names That Border on Perfection
I recently read an article about the first naval battle of Narvik, which took place in April 1940 between British and German ships in Ofotfjord (also called Narvik Fjord) in Norway. I won’t… Continue reading
What’s in a Name? Part One: Paulus and Paullus
Seventy years ago today, on February 2, 1943, the last German troops in Stalingrad surrendered. The fight for Stalingrad was huge in terms of lives lost and prisoners taken. (Estimates of total casualties… Continue reading
My New Maps
I didn’t have a map for my first novel, Espionage. Most of the novel took place in Calais, France, so hopefully it didn’t need one. But when two test readers for my next… Continue reading
Remembrance Day
Last weekend a good friend went to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, for their Remembrance Day activities. She posted these pictures on facebook, and with her permission, I’m reposting them (with her descriptions) below. I know… Continue reading
Happy Veterans’ Day!
I’m having this post at 11 in the morning, French time (at least according to the time zone chart I found online). Why? Because Veteran’s Day used to be Armistice Day, a day… Continue reading
Research Find: Why you shouldn’t tell the newspapers if you’re breaking someone’s code or tracking their satellite phone
In 1927, the government of Great Britain was looking for a reason to break off diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union. They had plenty of reason—for one, the staff from the Soviet embassy… Continue reading
Research Finds: Unusual Stiches and a Little-known Battle
One thing about writing historical fiction—you have to do a lot of research. Good thing I like learning new things. A lot of tidbits I come across won’t appear in one of my… Continue reading
Hitler and Revenge
You’ve probably heard the saying “revenge is a dish best served cold” (often attributed to the Klingons). Apparently, it’s something Adolf Hitler missed, and today I’m going to make the wild assertion that… Continue reading