Vicki Hopkins's Blog: Leighton Family Saga, page 5

Choosing a day in the Week

Let it not be said that I don’t research when it comes to writing my books! When you’re talking about getting married on a certain day of the week in 1863, a calendar is important!  To prove that I checked the date to reference correctly, I found a calendar as you see below.

 

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What day of the week did I choose for the first marriage in this lengthy saga? According to a Victorian Wedding article, a popular rhyme went like this:

Marry on Monday for health,
Tuesday for wealth,
Wednesday the bes...

Early Victorian Clothing for Men at Historical Emporium

When I look at men’s fashions in the Victorian era, I don’t think they changed as drastically as the female dresses did over the years.  Of course, looking at these outfits, as shown on fashion website linked below, we’re talking about the well-dressed male of the 1850s to 1870s.

The males initially in book one, Toil Under the Sun, are dressed in far less fashionable trends for being common laborers in the construction business. Dirty clothes, tattered sleeves, worn shoes are the norm. They...

Patented Brickmaking Machines

The fear of men losing their jobs because of automation has continued since the dawn of the industrial revolution.  Even in our lifetime, robotic counterparts are replacing human workers and jobs are being lost.

Can you imagine the fear this must have instilled in the man of 1860 who made his life hand-molding bricks?  An inventor comes along and makes this huge monster machine that threatens his usefulness and income as a laborer in Victorian England.  No wonder he hates it — no wonder he wa...

1860s Dress Fashions

Source: 1860s evening dress fashions, descriptions and fashion plates, Vintage Victorian

It’s very easy to like the fashions of past decades.  Once again, I’m not that enthralled with the 1860s  when it comes to gowns. Some of them were so voluminous, you wonder how they sat, walked through a door, climbed into a carriage, or managed in the powder room.

If you visit the link below, you’ll find all sorts of beautiful 1850-1860s pictures of dinner and evening dresses. However, those beautiful d...

1860’s- Hats & Bonnets

[image error]1860’s and hats!  It’s the bonnet, which frankly isn’t my favorite.  On a personal note, I can’t stand anything tied underneath my chin. Wearing one of these hats with a huge ribbon underneath my jaw would have led me down the road of perdition by not covering my head while out in public.

I am definitely going to refer to this website as we go through the decades on fashions. Meet Mrs. Parker’s Millinery and Mercantile.  Hats are for sale if you wish to purchase a replica and play Victorian d...

Reality – Who Wants to Read It?

Beautiful dresses. Stately homes. Titled aristocrats. Wealthy yearly incomes. Those are usually the things that readers love to fantasize about when they read historical fiction or historical romance.

The best-selling books on the market are not about the miserable lives in the Victorian era. It has become obvious by some harsh reviews I received on The Price of Innocence, that some called a “miserable book,” readers would rather not think about the squalor 90% of the population experienced i...

Pass Me the Mortar

[image error]I come from a long line of bricksetters or bricklayers as some term these talented men.  The man standing on the scaffolding in the picture on the right with white gloves is my grandfather, Robert Holland.  The dude with no shirt on is my father. (inserts blush) My grandfather was a bricklayer, and I’m pretty sure each of his four male sons knew how to lay bricks, though they didn’t keep the profession for the long term.

My grandfather’s father, Robert Holland, was also a bricklayer.  His fat...

The Journey Begins in 1860

 

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Thank you for joining me on the journey, and I’m excited to begin this new family saga with all sorts of drama, soap opera antics, love stories, family conflict, affairs, and everything else that makes a family saga so much fun!

This particular series of books is loosely based on the events of my ancestor’s lives in Manchester, United Kingdom from 1860 until 1930.  I’ve amassed a large amount of information from twenty-five years of research that will be sporadically included through the s...

What’s Next?

After finishing three Ladies of Disgrace stories, I’ll probably put that idea aside for now.  However, I’m so happy at the great reviews Lady Charlotte has received!  Thank you very much.  It was a fun book to write, and it appears everyone likes Charlotte.

What’s next?  I’m still mulling over my options regarding what to write – contemporary, historical romance, time travel, or another family saga.  In my files, I actually have three other books I’ve started writing, but they’ve all fizzled...

Readers’ Favorite Gives Lady Charlotte Five Stars

A few months ago, Lady Grace received a five-star review from Readers’ Favorite.  Today I received an email that my review had been posted for Lady Charlotte and am happy to report another five stars.  You can read the review at this LINK.

If you’ve read any of the three books of the series, please leave reader reviews as well.  Here is a link to one of my blog posts about the importance of reviews for authors and how a few words help.  READ HERE

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