I’m subscribed to the Tor/Forge newsletter because there have been some nifty giveaways and interviews in there. The funny thing here is that I forgot that I gave them an article for the newsletter and so was surprised to see my name today even though I knew darn well to expect it because my novel comes out tomorrow.
When one decides to write a historical novel, even if it is a fantasy, one must brace oneself for copious amounts of research. Research which feels as though it will never end. The curious thing about all this research is that much of it does not show up on the page. While writing Shades of Milk and Honey, set in an alternate England in 1814 I learned a number of things which surprised me. Here are a few my favorites.
Visit Tor/Forge’s Blog to learn more about out these odd historical details
- What it means when a letter was crossed.
- There is no such thing as a left shoe.
- How to turn the table.
- Hello is not a word.
via .
Heh. I thought of two possible ways to parse that post title, and both turned out to be wrong!
That Morgan Library link is ridiculously cool, by the way. Totally makes my graduate school work transcribing Yeats’s drafts–including cross-outs and above-line replacements–obsolete!
Wow. That must have been some intense work!
It was awful. I can’t read Yeats anymore; he’s totally ruined for me.
And the part about letters that always amuses me- it wasn’t you the sender who paid, it was the recipient. The savings in postage probably outweighed the annoyance of trying to decipher the crossed lines.
steven fry and the invention of ‘hello’ – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xXSw07zrio from QI
That’s very funny, but Mr. Fry is not correct. The first written use of “Hello” was in 1833 and is clearly a greeting.
then i withdraw my motion
Checking out something more about your book, which sounds so cool btw 🙂
And fun post