Copperfield Review's Blog, page 19

The Unhappiest Man I Ever Knew

By William Locke Hauser   “The mass of men,” wrote Henry David Thoreau, “lead lives of quiet desperation.” That would hardly have applied to my great-grandfather, a New York City businessman of the mid-19th century. Born in 1816 to a farm … Continue reading →

Defending Your ‘Based’: The Role of Invention in Fact-Based Historical Fiction

By Michael Kula   On June 22, 1917, the headline in the Waukesha, Wisconsin Freeman newspaper read: “Mary Roberts Found Murdered.” Mary Roberts was the beautiful socialite wife of Dr. David Roberts, a wealthy and internationally renowned veterinarian during the … Continue reading →

Jennifer Falkner

Jennifer Falkner is the creator and editor of the online literary journal Circa, which is devoted to historical fiction, which happens to be my favorite genre (for those of you who haven’t already guessed that about me). What makes Circa unique is the … Continue reading →

Visiting Kindred Spirits

By Charlie Britten My eyes brimmed with tears, one of those moments so intense I wanted to make it end, to run out into the safety of the hire car, the road and the twenty-first century.  Yes, I know it was … Continue reading →

Alone: A Winter in the Woods

Written by: Felicity Sidnell Reid Published by: Hidden Brook Press Reviewed by: Peggy Dymond Leavey   After the end of the American War of Independence, in the winter of 1797, thirteen-year-old John Turner and his father, Elias, settlers originally from … Continue reading →

Go Set a Watchman

Written by: Harper Lee Published by: William Heinemann Review by: Charlie Britten When Go Set a Watchman, Harper Lee’s long-forgotten sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird, first appeared in July this year, it was panned in almost every review, but, now the … Continue reading →

The Intrepid Stagecoach Mary

By Walter Giersbach Life in the 19th century was vivid and terrifying, colorful and amazing in its variety.  But you wouldn’t know it looking at yellowed news clippings and daguerreotypes.  It was explosively colorful, literally and metaphorically, where the times concerned Mary … Continue reading →

Dare To Do Nothing: Replenishing the Creative Well

To say I had been having a busy time of it would be an understatement. Suddenly, I was a university student for the first time in 20 years, I was still a full time teacher, and I was working on … Continue reading →

Writing the Love that Dare Not Speak Its Name in Historical Fiction

By Laurel Deedrick-Mayne How do we write the love that ‘dare not speak its name’ within the genre of historical fiction? I confess that even writing the love that can be ‘shouted from the rooftops’ has thrown me into flushed-faced … Continue reading →

Kate Garrett

Anne Bonny walks out to sea   The salted air no longer stings my cheeks, just as a skilled carpenter never splinters wood. This path pushes out, sanded smooth; I reel along   it to the shoreline, away from honest, … Continue reading →