Rollicking historical romantic adventures
My Favourite Resources
I am not paid to recommend these resources
My Two-minute Claim to Fame
Publishing giants, Joanna Penn and Mark Leslie Lefebvre, have been in the business long enough to see authors burning out and leaving the writing life because they turned what they love into a hamster wheel of ever more production and marketing tasks they hate. It doesn't have to be this way.
This book is a collection of tips on how to be a more relaxed author — and return to the love that brought you to writing in the first place.
You'll find my two cents' worth quoted within (don't blink, or you'll miss it!)
Specialised Historical Fiction Editor
Book Creators
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Interior Book Formatting & Design — Nicole Scarano
Tools for Building an Author Platform
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Epic Facebook Author Pages: Everything You Need to Know — Shayla Raquel
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How to Start Blogging: A Definitive Guide for Authors — Jane Friedman
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20 Email Tips & Tricks for Author Newsletters — Shayla Raquel
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FOLLOWING: A Marketing Guide To Author Platform — David Gaughran
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Twitter Tips for Newbies series, for all the tricks I learned along the way — Emma Lombard
Tools for Writing
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Writers Helping Writers (free samples of Descriptive Thesaurus collection) — Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi
Tools for Getting Published
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The Key Book Publishing Paths chart — Jane Friedman
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Writer Beware for up-to-date news of scammers in the publishing industry — Victoria Strauss
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The Query Shark for writing Query Letters — Janet Reid
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The Business of Being A Writer — Jane Friedman
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The 10 Commandments of Author Branding — Shayla Raquel
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Wide for the Win Facebook Group — Erin Wright
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Sites to find agents:
Tools for Managing Social Media
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Tweetdeck — for scheduling Twitter posts
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Facebook Page scheduled posts — for pre-planning Facebook posts
Lists of Book Reviewers
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Penmore Press — huge and comprehensive database of book reviewers across all genres
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The Empowered Author — connect with book bloggers
Historical Research Sources
Naval
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Royal Museums Greenwich — for all things British Royal Navy
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Historic Naval Fiction — all aspects of naval fiction, including links to great fiction and non-fiction resources
Women At Sea
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Seafaring Women by renowned historian, Linda Grant De Pauw
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Female Tars by Suzanne J. Stark
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Hen Frigates by maritime historian, Joan Durett
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She Captains by maritime historian, Joan Durett
Great Storm Descriptions
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Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
Digitalised Newspapers
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Trove — Australian digitalised newspapers
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Newspaper Archive — US digitalised newspapers
Language
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Google Ngram Viewer — shows when a word or phrase was used throughout the history of written records
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Etymology Online — a history of words and their origins, and when they were first recorded in writing
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Deviant Art — Victorian-style Insults Generator (SO much fun!)
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The Slang Dictionary: Etymological, Historical and Anecdotal — by John Camden Hotten
Victorian Times
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The Victorian Dictionary — a treasure trove of Victorian resources compiled by historical fiction author, Lee Jackson
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The Victorian Web — literature, history & culture in the age of Victoria
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Rootsweb — an absolute rabbit hole of ancestral history and stories
Maps
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David Rumsey Map Collection — digitalised, rare 16th through 21st century maps of North and South America, as well as maps of the World, Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania
Food Through the Ages
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What's cooking? A culinary journey through history — detailed guide of cuisine in particular historical periods
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Eat Like A Pirate — includes interesting descriptions about the taste of flamingos, armadillos and guavas, and some preparation tips of other new foods through the eras
Courtesy and Peerage Titles
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Nancy Mayer, Regency Researcher — titles and names, as well as how to speak to and of titled persons
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Courtesy Titles — a peer's wife and children are granted the use of certain titles, depending upon the rank of the peer