My Researching Goes On and On (Z. Minor)

I am researching 1820-1821 England once again, or I should say still. I have started the second story in the Sisterhood of the Coin series. Nicola Highbridge story is the first book in the series, which is being published by The Wild Rose Press.

Mara Highbridge is the main character for the second book and I have been looking for historical information that can be used as part of the plot for a romantic suspense novel. I only look for enough information for the first draft of my story. Once I have the story completed – beginning, middle and end. I will go back through the story, add detail, and find any additional information to complete the story. Sometimes I add or take out information. I try hard not to give a history lesson but show real people with real problems.

Here is my example: Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, was beheaded 8 months after her husband. I found that to be a little strange – why not behead them at the same time. So “WHAT IF” it was discovered she was pregnant. The French people, I believe, would have revolted against killing a woman who was pregnant. Being she hadn’t been living with her husband for more than a year—who could be the father of her child? I found information Marie Antoinette, a book has been written about it, had an affair with a Count from Sweden. He could be the father?? Then I start thinking more “WHAT IF”.

Back to my story – Mara was raised by a foster mother and overhears a conversation that she looks so much like her mother that it is surprising no one has noticed. Because her older foster sister, Nicola (first book) has found her parents, she is determined to do so as well.

Using the researched facts – Mara will discover who her birth parents are and how she was smuggled out of the prison where she was born and brought to England to be raised. Of course, I have found other researched information about the time period which will be added to the story, such as human trafficking – which I discovered has been going on since time began. Embezzling money from innocent people is another facet that might play apart in the plot. Bernie Madoff wasn’t the first and I am sure won’t be the last crook caught stealing from investors.  The one in 1821 got hung for his efforts. Of course Mara’s love interest, Barnaby, just happens to work for the government and with his contacts, he and Nicola’s husband, help ferret out the evil people in Mara’s life. Love triumphs and wins the day for Mara and Barnaby.

I have discovered the fabric of the world in 1820-1821 is much different than today. Interesting enough people haven’t changed – greed, murdered, lust, dishonesty, love, and hope are the same no matter the place or time.

Z. Minor

Author of Historical Romantic & Contemporary Suspense Novels

The Power To Change History

History is a part of all of us. It shapes the world and everyone in it. We learn from it, if we choose to. Sadly, mankind as a whole does not. How to pick from its archives one or two events that I wish to see is mind-boggling. I've been struggling with that chore all month.

Yesterday, life chose for me. It’s not a big event, like the landing of the Mayflower. Nor one I would want to see. I would not be content with being a spectator either. I would want to make a difference and try to change that particular piece of history.

Yesterday, they found a young man, someone I know, whose mother is a dear friend of mine, dead. At this point there is no explanation. I don’t even know what happened, but the choice to be there, in the off chance I could have helped, is my pick in history.

We are on this planet to make a difference. We impact people’s lives each and every day. Sometimes for good, and sometimes, not so much. This young man needed help. Whether that be to talk him out of killing himself, helping to fight off a murderer or performing CPR until the ambulance arrived, remains to be seen.

There are times in our personal history when we would all desire to turn back the clock. Living with regrets is the pits. Making an effort to live outside the box of self-interest brings less regret. Choosing to make a difference for good, no matter how small, builds a chest of treasured memories.

Someone somewhere knew this young man needed help. Whether a neighbor who heard fighting but ignored the nudge to call the police, or a friend who knew he was depressed. We may never know all the answers, but we do have a solution. Act when you sense trouble. Go out of your way to help those that need it. Respond to cries for help, even from strangers. Make your mark in history a good one, and choose to live a life of no regrets.

A Chip of The Block of History.

Patricia Davids here, wishing you all a happy February. A month known far and wide for romance.

I looked up our blog topic for this month and after reading it, I sat scratching my head for quite some time. If I could personally witness one event in history, what would I want to see and why?

That's like asking me to walk through the Russell Stover candy factory, pick out one piece and then tell you why I chose it. I love chocolate in all its forms, and I love HISTORY. I can't choose one event. I'd like to witness it all. I can't, of course, so it's a good thing someone wrote it down.

Someone wrote it down. Wow. That's what I'd like to witness!

 

I'd like to go back in time and meet the young man who carved the Rosetta Stone. I'd like to tell him that his ordinary day at the office (or temple) would one day unlock the secrets of ancient Egypt. I'd like him to know his creation would solve some of the greatest mysteries of mankind. He had no idea that his society would crumble and fall or that his very language would be lost for centuries. He just went to work like usual, got out his hammer and chisel, and knocked out another decree from the higher-ups.

 

 

So what is the Rosetta Stone you may well ask? (My daughter did. I was shocked.) Well, it is an ancient Egyptian granodiorite stele.

A what?

A granite-type rock, carved and placed upright as a monument or commemorative plaque. (I had to look that one up.)

Written in about 196 BC, the inscription on the Rosetta Stone is a decree passed by a council of priests. It affirms the royal sect of 13-year-old king Ptolemy V on the first anniversary of his coronation. It lists the good deeds done by the king for the temples and people of his kingdom. The decree is inscribed on the stone three times. Once in hieroglyphic which was suitable for a priestly decree. Once in demotic, which is the native script that was used for daily tasks, and once in Greek, the language of administration. How long or where it stood, we don't know. We do know it was covered over by the sands of Egypt until 1799. Some soldiers in Napoleon's army discovered the Rosetta Stone when they were digging the foundations for an addition to a fort outside the town of el-Rashid (Rosetta). Thank goodness they didn't use it for building material. After Napoleon's defeat, the stone became the property of the British under the terms of the Treaty of Alexandria in 1801. It remains in the British Museum to this day.

 

With it, scholars were able to decipher the previously unreadable hieroglyphic in the royal tombs and throughout Egypt. Everything we know about ancient Egypt today became possible because of one young priest with a hammer and chisel.

I'd like to think someone will find my writing entertaining or useful after 2000 years, but I'm sure not going to carve my manuscripts into stone to help them out. Imagine the postage for sending that to New York.

Did you know what the Rosetta Stone was before reading this? Are you a history buff?