Copperfield Review Interview
Meredith Allard has just posted an interview with me at the The Copperfield Review–A Journal for Readers and Writers of Historical Fiction that you might find interesting. The Copperfield Review is an electronic journal that reviews historical fiction (including poetry), and historical non-fiction, as well as does interviews with historical fiction authors. I found the questions very thought-provoking, and I appreciated the chance to write a little more about my journey as a historical fiction author and my participation in the Historical Fiction Authors Cooperative. You can find my interview here. M. Louisa Locke, July 3, 2013
“It’s a Dandelion Thing:” Social Media and Marketing
At the Digital Minds Conference held before the 2013 London Book Fair, Neil Gaiman made a speech where he asked the question: “How do we make ourselves heard in a world of too much information?” His answer: We rely on becoming dandelions.“ Gaimen went on to say: “…the model is try everything. Make mistakes. Surprise ourselves. Try anything else. Fail. Fail better. Succeed in ways we would never have imagined a year ago or a week ago. I think it’s time for us to be dandelions willing to launch a thousand seeds and lose 900 of them if a hundred or even a dozen survive and grow and make a new world.”––Neil Gaiman, Transcript of Speech at Digital Minds Conference for London Book Fair 2013 I love this image of the dandelion and its seeds, and it helped me frame Read more…
Review of Rubies of the Viper
Rubies of the Viper is a fast-paced, suspenseful and romantic historical novel by Martha Marks, and a totally satisfying read. Set primarily in Rome at the time of Emperor Nero, Rubies of the Viper tells the story of Theodosia, who is a young single woman without family to guide or protect her when she suddenly inherits her family fortune at the death of her half-brother. The mystery surrounding that brother’s death, the confusion of competing suitors, the secrets surrounding her own background, the machinations of unknown enemies, and her conflicted relationship with her household slaves keep Theodosia off balance and in danger throughout the book. I loved how Marks accurately recreated the past, portraying the complicated social, economic, and political relationships of the Roman Empire through the relationships of the characters, while making me see, and smell, and feel the Read more…
Review of No Game for a Dame and Tough Cookie: A Gendered Twist on the Classic Detective Genre
As any one who has read my own work might guess, I enjoy historical mysteries with a strong female protagonist who is working. And, therefore, it is no surprise how delighted I was when I found M. Ruth Myer’s mystery series featuring Maggie Sullivan, a sassy female detective. I initially gave the first book in Myer’s series, No Game for a Dame, a try because I am a fan of the hard-boiled detective mysteries of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett that are set in the 1930s and 1940s. And boy, am I glad I did. What fun it was to see the classic themes of this genre played out with a female private eye, in a book that stayed absolutely faithful to the historical time and place, late 1930’s Dayton, Ohio. In No Game for a Dame Myers did a Read more…
Historical Fiction that Influenced Me
I have decided to start putting up reviews on my blog. These will be primarily of interest to those people who are fans of my Victorian San Francisco Mystery series and might therefore be interested in what books I like to read. I remember how Dana Stabenow in one of her earliest Kate Shugak mysteries listed the books in Kate’s cabin. I assumed they reflected Stabenow’s own literary tastes, which were very similar to my own, and I remember thinking this was one of the reasons I enjoyed these mysteries set in the Alaskan wilderness so much. So I thought that readers might enjoy getting a glimpse into what literature influenced me, and conversely be influenced to pick up some of these books to read for themselves. This first post is a repost of an article I did for the Read more…
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