Plus Ça Change – September 21, 2026 FACT Marie Laveaux was illiterate. There is no doubt, from historical records, that she believed in education. She paid for the education of an orphan boy named François. That won’t enter the narrative, but it is the historical fact behind much of the… Continue reading
Wow. The QSQ Collective made a group 🙂 appearance at the Austin convention — at one panel, there were nine members on the reading panel. (Please don’t ask how many were in the audience; it’ll be better next year!) Folks spoke on panels, and Elizabeth Moon had shirts for her… Continue reading
Plus Ça Change – September 13, 2026 I write fiction built on historical fact. Sorta. My favorite aphorism about historical fiction authors: we owe allegiance to the truth, not the facts. The story must be true, but the specific details may not be historically precise. Nonetheless, sometimes the foundational reality… Continue reading
Plus Ça Change – September 2, 2026 Plus Ça Change – Vaccination September 2, 2026 When I was writing Laveaux: Dancer, I had a scene in a slave pen (euphemistically a slave depot). I wanted a description of what one was like in New Orleans. After much digging I found… Continue reading
Plus Ça Change – August 27, 2026 Once again, the unexpected. Working on Laveaux: Mother, I reach a chapter that has serious nostalgia potential for Marie. Fact: As of 1840, neither white people nor slaves could attend a ball designated for free people of color. Americans impose segregationist laws. The… Continue reading
Plus Ça Change – August 24, 2026 I tossed a chapter completely. My assessment is, I don’t need it. I’m moving one I had planned for a few years downstream into this slot. The narrative elements I had planned for the ditched chapter can be a few lines of dialog… Continue reading
Plus Ça Change – August 16, 2026 The scene: Marie goes to the night firewood market to get fuel for her kitchen stove. There really was a night market for firewood. It really was in the neutral ground on Rampart Street near Canal. Night because the people selling firewood were… Continue reading
Plus Ça Change – August 15, 2026 Once upon a time I was a tech writer focused on software development. I was very good at it. Company X would drop some new technology on my desk, and pay me to figure out how to explain it to the software developers… Continue reading
Plus Ça Change – August 13, 2026 I need a good (expletive deleted). Christophe is righteously outraged. So of course “son of a bitch” comes to mind. But I’ve been here before, looking for period-correct curses from the enlightenment. Etymologically, I could use this. But there are other considerations. For… Continue reading
Plus Ça Change – August 8, 2026 In 1836, the good white Americans of New Orleans instituted a secret police to keep an eye on those dangerous people of color. They might be eating the pets. It’s an intriguing historical tidbit. In 1836 The Louisiana legislature divided the city of… Continue reading
