Robert Brighton

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Robert Brighton, award-winning author of immersive historical fiction, including The Avenging Angel Detective Agency™ Mysteries, is an authority on the Gilded Age, and a great believer that the Victorian era was anything but stuffy.

In his Avenging Angel Detective Agency Mysteries, Brighton exposes the turbulence of the era - its passions, dreams, and disasters - against a backdrop of careful research on the places, sights, sounds, and smells of the time.

When he is not walking the streets in the footsteps of the Avenging Angels, sniffing out unsolved mysteries, Brighton is an adventurer. He has traveled in more than 50 countries around the world, personally throwing himself into every situation his characters will face - from underground ru
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Robert Brighton Two things. One — I never sit down to write (on my laptop) if I don’t already know what I’m going to write. The blank screen can be intimidating — and…moreTwo things. One — I never sit down to write (on my laptop) if I don’t already know what I’m going to write. The blank screen can be intimidating — and a constraint on creativity. My process is always to work through the various scenes and events with a pencil and steno pad. I can sit and let myself dream, take notes, cross things out — all in a less structured way (and less pressure) than the computer demands. It’s like making a sketch before attempting a painting, no more, no less.

Two — I let the story come to me. Someone told me once that there is a Zen saying that ‘you never catch anything you chase’. I’ve certainly found that to be true with writing. I have to let my characters tell me the story, and patiently follow along as the story unfolds. So I never force it, and never try to get my characters into or out of a jam … I just try to let my mind go blank and watch, listen — and then write it down.


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Robert Brighton Spoiler alert: It isn’t the money! The satisfaction in being a writer is much like that of being a composer … there are only seven notes in music, but…moreSpoiler alert: It isn’t the money! The satisfaction in being a writer is much like that of being a composer … there are only seven notes in music, but Mozart made them into something immortal. And since there are a lot more words than notes, I think it makes it all the more joyous when one succeeds in capturing on paper some tiny sliver of the universal, of what makes us human. It’s a connection that transcends time, culture, and even language.(less)
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More books by Robert Brighton…

Making (and Breaking) New Year’s Resolutions in the Gilded Age

An examination of New Year’s resolutions reveals some striking parallels across two eras: the Gilded Age and our own modern moment. What did people more than a century ago hope to improve, reinvent, or leave behind—and how different are their ambitions from ours today?

You might be surprised by how familiar their goals feel, and by what those resolutions reveal about progress, pressure, and human n Read more of this blog post »
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The Unsealing A Murder in Ashwood: Scanda... Current of Darkness
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4.13 avg rating — 214 ratings

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Making (and Breaking) New Year’s Resolutions in the Gilded Age

An examination of New Year’s resolutions reveals some striking parallels across two eras: the Gilded Age and our own modern moment. What did people mo Read more of this blog post »
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Current of Darkness by Robert Brighton
Current of Darkness
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