Uneasy Spirits Free and Bloody Lessons Discounts
I like to promote the second book in my Victorian San Francisco series, Uneasy Spirits, in October, because it is such a perfect read for those people who like a little taste of the supernatural with their mysteries. Even though in this novel, Annie is tasked with unmasking a fraudulent spiritualist, her encounters with the young girl, Evie May, are just a bit disconcerting. In addition, this book let me explore the ways that San Franciscans, especially the Irish, celebrated Halloween in the late 19th century. So, until October 5, you can get the ebook version of Uneasy Spirits FREE on Kindle, Kobo, Nook, AppleBooks, and GooglePlay. For those of you outside of the US, this link will help you find a version on international retailers. And for those of you who buy the Amazon ebook edition, the audiobook version is Read more…
Who were the Women Attending Berkeley in 1880-81?
In Scholarly Pursuits (now available), I set the mystery on the University of California campus at Berkeley during the spring term of 1881. The university, first opened in 1863, didn’t enroll any women until 1870, and between 1874 and 1881, only ten percent of the bachelor’s degrees granted by the university went to women. This is not surprising, given that one of the decade’s most popular books was Sex in Education (1873), a book by Edward Clarke, a Harvard medical school physician, who argued that women who were educated in the same fashion as men would face an inability to conceive and produce healthy children, life-long illness, and possible death. Clarke only produced anecdotal evidence to support his claims, nevertheless, his views gave a veneer of science to already held prejudices against women attending institutions of higher education, particularly co-educational institutions Read more…
In loco parentis: A comparison of 19th century and 20th century coeducation
Introduction: I confess, that like many historical fiction writers, I often choose my characters and plots as a way to explore certain subjects. For instance, my primary goal in starting to write my Victorian San Francisco Mystery series was to further explore and tell stories about the women I had studied for my history doctorate. Consequently, during the past ten years I have researched jobs women held in a variety of occupations including domestic service, spiritualism, public school teaching, the printing industry, and department stores. However, while doing the research about public school teaching for Bloody Lessons, the third book in my mystery series, I discovered that the University of California had opened up its door to women in 1870, and I decided that at some point I would like to see what life was like for women attending a coeducational Read more…
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