Five Facts From History the BryonySeries Taught Me, Part One

Part of the fun of writing novels with a historical basis is, well, learning the history behind them.

Unfortunately, the research involved can also greatly lengthen the time it takes to write said novels.

For one, the research must get done. What did people of French descent eat on Christmas Eve in the late nineteenth century (I know this answer to this one!).

Also, it's simply too easy to get lost in the enjoyment of the research itself, which leads to another click of the mouse to this site and to another one over here.

Here are five (for now) facts about history I didn't know before I wrote the BryonySeries prequel, Before The Blood.


1) Ellis Island was not the first immigration center.

It was Castle Garden, now known as the Castle Clinton National Monument. The site was originally a fort, then a theater (where P.T. Barnum once brought Jenny Lind to sing), the immigration center, and an aquarium.


2) Old St. Patrick's Cathedral (not the "new" one) has an interesting tourist attraction.

Catacombs.


3) A company still around today started the pension system.

American Express, followed by railroad companies, such as the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company.


4) New York was home to two interesting industries.

"Rogue" slaughterhouses was one of them. The other you probably already know: opium.


5) A certain "cocktail" was used both as a stimulant and a poison, depending on the amounts. In fact, it used to be a favorite of Olympic athletes.

Strychnine and brandy.

Illustration by Kathleen Rose Van Pelt for "Bryony."

BryonySeries Throwback Thursday: Research

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Research

Arguably, for me, one of the most delightful part of writing fiction.

Anyone that has read Bryony can see the vast amounts of research that went into the book...and the citations at the end are only the sources that made the cut! The rest went into folders for Before the Blood, folders that grow larger each weekend.

Visage, completely set in the 1970s, didn't contain quite so much research, although it still had a fair amount, and Staked! veered into another knowledge-seeking direction, unfamiliar to me (at the time) and yet quite delightful, thank you, Ed Calkins.

In the past two weekends, I've learned that Ellis Island was not the first immigration site and that P. T. Barnum actually once managed Jenny Lind (very cool, considering I already have a reference to Barnum in a previous chapter).

I've studied up on Castle Garden, the Steinway family (and found the diary of William Steinway online, very helpful), the history of the Metropolitan Opera House, Spode China, and built on my knowledge of both Delmonico's and McSorley's, both still in existence (getting hungry and want to go there...)

Despite my lack of geographical orientation, from the many maps and city layouts I've found online, I'm fairly certain that, if Kellen Weschler dropped me in the middle of nineteenth century New York, especially around Fifth Avenue or 7th and 11th Streets in lower Manhattan, I could find my way around.

Well, as long as I don't use the Simons mansion as my landmark for the first or Hewes Music Hall for the second.

Because these only exist in my imagination and on my computer screen.