I hope your holiday season is going well! I’m posting here mainly to thank you. As you might know, I donate the royalties from my self-published books (including audiobooks) to Doctors Without Borders. I just made this year’s donation, and do you want to know how much it was? $9800. Just… wow. It’s your support …
Notes for Chapter 6 Links to the entire set of notes Page numbers refer to the page in the PDF and print versions. 95—he was in a gang. Alby’s childhood neighborhoods were infamous for their gangs as early as the 1820s, when an Irish gang called the Forty Thieves was active in Five Points. …
Notes for Chapter 5 Links to the entire set of notes Page numbers refer to the page in the PDF and print versions. 64—a professor talking about dinosaur bones he’d dug up. Scientists discovered dinosaurs in the 1840s, and paleontology became a hot enough topic to lead to the Bone Wars of the 1870s-80s. Public …
Notes for Chapter 4 Links to the entire set of notes Page numbers refer to the page in the PDF and print versions. 43—stripped down to his union suit. I did a fair amount of research on period-appropriate underwear. In Alby’s time, a one-piece union suit would have been most likely. The two-piece version is called …
Notes for Chapter 3 Links to the entire set of notes Page numbers refer to the page in the PDF and print versions. 26—Now many of them spoke in Italian. Although Italians landed in New York City as early as the 1600s, it was the late 1800s and early 1900s that saw huge waves arrive. They …
Notes for Chapter 2 Links to the entire set of notes Page numbers refer to the page in the PDF and print versions. 21—Alby was smitten almost at once. Americans in the 1880s were surprisingly tolerant of same-sex relationships, as long as they were conducted discreetly. This was especially true in the West, where there …
Notes for Chapter 1 Links to the entire set of notes Page numbers below refer to the page in the PDF and print versions. 9—cheap food was easy to find at the pushcarts in Five Points. People have been selling food and goods on the streets of New York City since its founding. The earliest carts …
Are you a proud nerd like I am? Does the word research send pleasant little tingles down your spine? Have you considered tattooing a footnote on your foot? If so, this post is for you. Summerfield’s Angel is set in New York City in 1888, which means I joyfully engaged in a lot of background research …