Bathing in the Middle Ages

Continuing with my last post’s theme on bathing through history, this one deals specifically with bathing in the Middle Ages. While the Crusades are generally blamed for a number of things, they triggered significant advances in the West. Indeed, some scholars...

A Brief History of Bathing

A reader of my fantasy sci-fi series, Pearseus, once joked that I have a strange fascination with showers. And it’s true; I think of them as a great example of things we take for granted but are actually pretty new. In this day and age, we enjoy a lot of...

Girl Power and the She-cession

I once had a look at my visitors and was pleasantly surprised to discover that most of them are women. I say pleasantly because, as the father of an, ahem, energetic 4-year-old girl, I know all about girl power. Nothing pleases me more than seeing women succeed (okay,...

The Future of Barnes and Nobles

The Passive Guy recently shared a post by Jane Friedman on the future of Barnes & Noble; a topic you may remember from my earlier post, “How Amazon Destroyed Barnes & Noble.” Quite frankly, Jane’s post made me sad. The latest chairman, James...

Ancient Travels

I came across an interesting question on Quora the other day: What was the approximate travel time between London and Rome in the 13th century? As Frank Melling, author of “A Sixpence in the Settee,” points out, this is not a simple question to answer, as...

The Problems with Publishing

Author Kristine Kathryn Rusch recently shared a must-read post about today’s state of publishing, aptly titled Trainwreck, Fall Edition. As she explains, she tried in June to order a copy of a book she liked for her sister. However, she wouldn’t get the book...

Free Online Character Name Generators

I have an unusual relationship with character names, probably because I have such a poor memory (as Electra likes to point out). Quite frankly, I don’t particularly like the process of coming up with names. As the saying goes, you don’t know how many...

Unknown Medieval Weapons

Everyone’s heard of swords and spears. But how about the Goedendag, the Ahlspiess, or the Hussite flail? If you write historical fiction, you may appreciate this opportunity to spice up your weapons, courtesy of Quora. The Goedendag Essentially, the Goedendag...

How Fiction Can Inspire Business Writing

Business writing includes memos, reports, proposals, emails, and a variety of other business-related written materials. It usually gets pretty bad press among both readers and writers. It is seen as boring and tedious, making for dreary reading – and even worse...

Remembering 9/11

Every year, this is a post I wish I didn’t have to write. Will the pain ever fade? Remembering 9/11Powered By the Tweet This PluginTweet This...