by Stephanie Dray | Apr 24, 2021 | Adrienne Lafayette, America's First Daughter, Bloopers, The Women of Chateau Lafayette
Here’s one for the blooper file. As I understand it, the chocolate we know it today was not invented until 1847. Until then, chocolate was known and enjoyed as a drink. So why, then, do edible chocolates appear at the end of the 18th century in both...
by Stephanie Dray | Feb 16, 2021 | Bloopers, The Women of Chateau Lafayette
In my author’s note for The Women of Chateau Lafayette I wrote that at the New York Historical Society, in a box of Beatrice Chanler’s papers, I found unaddressed love letters tucked into a Valentine folder with a note that identified them as being from...
by Stephanie Dray | Dec 23, 2017 | Bloopers, For Writers
I hope I never reach a point in my career where I will feel perfectly confident dispensing literary commandments like Moses with stone tablets. But since I was raised Catholic, I thought I’d take a humbler stab at The Gospel of Historical Fiction according to...
by Stephanie Dray | Dec 7, 2012 | Bloopers, Lily of the Nile, My Works, Song of the Nile
The Nile is a river in Egypt that empties into the Mediterranean. Its source, though hotly debated in ancient times and incorrectly theorized by King Juba II to be in ancient Mauretania, is actually (mostly) in Ethiopia. The river flows north. Consequently, when...
by Stephanie Dray | Oct 24, 2011 | Bloopers
Last week, I posted an article on historical accuracy and whether it matters. My general contention is that I won’t change anything in history unless there’s a very good plot reason for doing so. And even though I am willing to move a battle, I try very...
by Stephanie Dray | May 18, 2010 | Bloopers, Fun Stuff
When your heroine has magical abilities and you’ve written your book to be as accessible as possible, historical accuracy may not seem like something an author would be overly concerned with. But when it comes to my writing, I like to make sure that when I...
