From the sketchbook of Villard de Honnecourt, a 13th century master mason. These show sketches of The Green Man motif that can be found in...
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History
The Written Word – Victorian Women’s Periodicals
March is Women’s History Month, which is pretty much EVERY month for us Paper Lantern Writers. But this March we’re focusing on the Written Word and...
It’s Mardi Gras History, Baby!
Author's Note: This blog post was crafted before the heinous shooting of parade goers during Sunday's Bacchus Parade. My heart goes out to the...
Luminous Istanbul: City of Dreams
Hagia Sophia, Salvator Barki/Getty Images Whenever friends returned from a trip to Istanbul—whether spending a week or a month—they always said, “We...
Where Murder Is As Commonplace As Suppertime
Panning for gold, 1850. I love history (obviously), and most of my work stems from a specific tidbit I’ve found in my regular reading. While...
Reflecting upon Revolutionary America
Long before I heard the unbelievably insane soundtrack of Lin-Manual Miranda’s Hamilton, I’d been a big fan of the men and women of the American...
Pondering Roman Britain
Roman baths When someone suggested our topic for this month: "Places/Eras we'd like to write about, but haven't," I immediately knew what I would...
Gilded Age Actress Maude Adams on Dressing the Part
Maude Adams as Peter Pan Maude Adams was the preeminent American stage actress of the Gilded Age and Broadway’s original Peter Pan. She owned...
How We Traveled
PEOPLE SAY “now that we have global markets…” We’ve always had global markets. People have been trading since prehistoric times, even earlier....
Food, Glorious Food : a Taste of History
In historical fiction, sex may be seductive, combat thrilling, but food is always a draw: from peasant staples to sumptuous feasts. Since people...
Witchcraft and Alchemy or the Craft and Process of Writing
We all know the iconic quote by W. Somerset Maugham, “There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.”...
Relatable Misfits in Books and Real Life
My tag line is “writing relatable misfits.” A friend of mine said it in a review a while back, and I realized she was right—as is often the case, I...
7 Bad Girls in History
I needed seven amazing women for this blog and I knew I MUST turn to Bad Girls Throughout History, 100 Remarkable Women Who Changed the World, by...
Six Facts About Women That Seem Like Modern Feminist Inventions But Are True
There are a few women throughout history that get some credit, like Nefertiti, Queen Elizabeth, or the Hindu goddess Kali. But by and large, our...
10 Mana Wāhine o Hawai‘i – Powerful Women of Hawai‘i
THE BENEFACTOR: Born in 1831, Bernice Pauahi Bishop was the great-granddaughter of King Kamehameha I. During her lifetime, the native Hawaiian...
Celebrating Women’s History Month
ARTISTS, LEADERS, MUSICIANS, SCIENTISTS, AND WRITERS Hi, I’m Michal Strutin, one of the newest Paper Lantern Writers, but not new to...
TEN THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT…Ten American Heroines
Welcome to March and Women’s History Month! This month PLW dedicates our Tuesday blog to celebrating women’s history, and we’re doing it through...
Hidden History: Historical Queer Hangouts
One of the best parts of writing historical fiction is the research. As the author, your job is not just to present historically...
Hidden History: Ladies, Take a Seat! Where Women Sat in 17th-Century Spain
In my novel, The Lines Between Us, part of which takes place in seventeenth-century Spain, there is a scene in which one of the main characters,...
Link List: Gay Subculture of Regency England
MY THIRD BOOK, A LADY’S FINDER, IS COMING OUT ON MARCH 1, AND TO CELEBRATE, I WANTED TO SHARE SOME OF MY INTERNET RESEARCH GEMS. Researching this...
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