Mimi Matthews's Blog, page 5
January 31, 2020
Ether for Every Occasion: Wedding Nights, Frolics, and Flammable Binges
Derived from ethyl alcohol, ether was a sweet-smelling, colorless liquid that came into medical prominence in the nineteenth century. When vaporized and inhaled, it produced varying degrees of unconsciousness. First employed as a general anesthetic by American doctors in the 1840s, its popularity quickly spread to Victorian England. But ether wasn’t only used during surgeries. […]
January 10, 2020
The Girl with the 19th Century Curl: Hot Tongs, Setting Lotions, and False Hair
During much of the 1860s and 1870s, hair arranged in artfully placed curls and ringlets was all the rage. But for ladies with naturally straight hair, those curls weren’t always easy to achieve. Who can forget the scene in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women when Jo burns off her sister Meg’s hair with a pair […]
December 15, 2019
Ice Skating Fashions of the Nineteenth Century
For most mid-nineteenth century ladies, fashionable outdoor sport consisted of little more than horseback riding, or a spirited game of croquet. But with the winter came yet another option for outdoor activity. In her 1877 book The Ladies’ and Gentlemen’s Etiquette, Eliza Duffey states that ice skating “is to winter what croquet is to summer.” […]
November 24, 2019
Victorian Advice on DIY Christmas Decorations
For many Victorians, homemade Christmas decorations were far preferable to those bought in a store. Why spend good money on glittery trinkets when you could make something much more meaningful yourself? An article in the 1887 edition of Household Words advocates for doing just that, declaring: “There is no burst of splendor equal to that […]
October 31, 2019
A Convenient Fiction is a USA Today Bestseller!!
Dear Readers, My new Victorian romance novel A Convenient Fiction is a USA Today Bestseller!! This is my third book—and the third of the Parish Orphans of Devon books—to have made the USA Today bestseller list this year as a single title. I wasn’t expecting it. My illness and surgery last month resulted in the launch of […]
October 22, 2019
A Convenient Fiction Release Day: Blog Tour, Giveaway, & More!
It’s release day for my new Victorian romance A Convenient Fiction (Parish Orphan of Devon, Book 3)! To celebrate, I’m over at Frolic today with an exclusive excerpt. I’ll also be embarking on a virtual book tour this week, complete with reviews and a special giveaway. To top it all off, the eBook price of […]
October 20, 2019
The Value of An Introduction: Vouching for Someone Victorian-Style
Today, introducing one stranger to another at a social or business gathering is simply polite behavior. But in the Victorian era, an introduction was a thing of infinite value. It was a voucher. A guarantee that the person being introduced was both respectable and worthy of knowing. As Mrs. Walter Houghton explains in her 1893 […]
September 25, 2019
An Anniversary and a Milestone
Dear Readers, This month marks two years since my debut Victorian romance The Lost Letter was released in September 2017. Since then, I’ve released five more historical romance novels. I learned this week that, altogether, those six novels have sold more than 110,000 eBook copies!! *Note: That figure doesn’t include audiobooks, paperbacks, Kindle Unlimited page […]
August 20, 2019
Flattering by Gaslight: Fashion Advice for Nineteenth Century Ladies
The gas-lit ballrooms of the mid- to late nineteenth century weren’t as flattering to some colors as they were to others. For example, the 1897 edition of Hill’s Manual of Social and Business Forms warns that pale shades of yellow became “muddy in appearance by gaslight,” while shades of rose simply disappeared. Similarly, most shades […]
July 23, 2019
The Work of Art Release Day: Blog Tour, Giveaway, & More!
It’s release day for my new Regency romance The Work of Art! To celebrate, the eBook price is reduced to just $2.99 for the entire week. I’ll also be embarking on a virtual book tour this week, complete with reviews, exclusive excerpts, and a special giveaway. AVAILABLE NOW The Work of Art A Regency Romance […]
