by Mary Ann Paul | Mar 30, 2025 | Uncategorized
While walking through Boston this past week on a research visit, I walked past 24 School Street, a building constructed around 1925 — just the kind of place my protagonist Petra Wood might have darted into as she trailed a suspect. The building’s clean...
by Mary Ann Paul | Feb 23, 2025 | Uncategorized
There is something satisfyingly intimate about baking a recipe from a 1918 cookbook. As I mixed together diced fruit, flour, and the bare minimum of butter, I was not just following a recipe–I was stepping into the kitchen of a woman who lived during World War 1...
by Mary Ann Paul | Feb 1, 2025 | Uncategorized
Writing historical fiction used to require packing your bags, booking a research trip, and spending days (or weeks) elbow-deep in archival boxes, deciphering spidery handwriting by the dim glow of a reading lamp. For some writers, that kind of research still has its...
by Mary Ann Paul | Jan 17, 2025 | Uncategorized
Nestled in the heart of the Berkshires, October Mountain towers over Lenox, the setting for my book, with a quiet grandeur. Throughout my historic mystery, the mountain presides over the lives and secrets of my characters—and is a character in its own right. How did...
by Mary Ann Paul | Dec 13, 2024 | Uncategorized
The heroine of my book, Petra, zips around in her trusty 1916 Model T, navigating city streets and rural backroads with aplomb. Writing her adventures has immersed me in the peculiarities of early 20th-century road conditions, and I’ve come away in awe of the fearless...
by Mary Ann Paul | Nov 27, 2024 | Uncategorized
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, women’s fashion faced sharp criticism for its lavish use of bird feathers, plumes, and even entire bodies on hats and clothing. While this critique targeted the female wearers of these elaborate creations, the...
