Victorian San Francisco in 1880: Social Structure and Character Development
What follows is a brief summary of the social structure of San Francisco in 1880 (primarily from my dissertation, Like a Machine or an Animal) and how this has influenced some of the choices I have made in developing my characters in the Victorian San Francisco Mystery series. Brief Summary: “In 1880 San Francisco, with a population of 233,959 residents, was the ninth largest city in the United States. Located at the end of the peninsula that separates the Bay of San Francisco from the Pacific Ocean, this city of hills, sand dunes, fogs, and mild temperatures had been only a small village called Yerba Buena less than forty years earlier. This small village was one of the chief beneficiaries of the incredible influx of people into the region after the discovery of gold to the north in the winter Read more…
How realistic must we be when writing historical fiction? Victorian San Francisco Mistresses and Maids
I had planned to write about the social structure of Victorian San Francisco when two recent events got me to thinking about the tension historical fiction authors feels between accurately portraying the past and telling a good story. The first event was a mixed review I got for my most recent mystery, Uneasy Spirits. The reviewer suggested my treatment of the relationship between my protagonist Annie Fuller (who runs a boarding house in addition to being an amateur sleuth) and her staff was “unrealistic” because she treated her servants as friends and permitted them to have a Halloween party. The second event was an article in the New York Times Magazine entitled Nannies––Love, Money, and Other People’s Children, which reminded me how little the has changed between the Nineteenth and the Twenty-first century in terms of the problematic nature of Read more…
Victorian San Francisco Short Story
My short story, set in 1879 San Francisco, features two elderly dressmakers, Miss Minnie and Miss Millie Moffet, who face a moral dilemma of no small dimensions. They turn for advice to Annie Fuller, a widowed boardinghouse owner who supplements her income as a clairvoyant, Madam Sibyl. For those who have read Locke’s two full-length Victorian San Francisco mysteries, Maids of Misfortune and Uneasy Spirits, this is an amusing glimpse into the lives of Annie Fuller’s two most eccentric boarders. For those unfamiliar with Locke’s mysteries and the late nineteenth century world they portray, this is just a taste of things to come. This short story is now available on Kindle, or through a Kindle Ap, for only 99 cents. Check it out.
Musing on Illness in the Victorian Era
At the beginning, when I first started this blog, I intended that it would be a place where I would be able to expound on the Victorian era and the world I was creating in my historical mysteries. Instead, for the first year it became primarily a place to describe my journey through self-publishing. As I began to get back into the historical research necessary for writing the sequel to Maids of Misfortune, I find my desire to write about the past growing. I have addressed this desire primarily through the creation of an facebook author page, where I frequently post tidbits about late nineteenth century San Francisco, along with links to people, places, and events that can be found in my fiction. From time to time I write a longer piece, and I have decided to post these pieces Read more…
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