Plus ça Change – May 13, 2026 My critique group (see Clustered Together) is still working on Dancer. We’re getting toward the end, and of late their feedback results in tweaks. Good tweaks, but the story is solid. Writing is never done. Although this goes back into Dancer, it’s the… Continue reading
Plus ça Change – May 13, 2026 I have an underlying theme that Marie experiences throughout her adult years in New Orleans. The Americans bought the territory in 1803. That started a culture war that lasted for decades, and Marie lived through it. As always there are exceptions, but the… Continue reading
Plus ça Change – May 1, 2026 Pantsing has consequences. I didn’t know who what when where why, but I expected something like this. I’m sure it’s going to happen again. At this point in the narrative, Marie’s father, Charles Laveaux, is a widow. His wife had money. She was… Continue reading
Plus ça Change – April 28, 2026 So, I’m walking with Marie down to the waterfront where she is going to see her sister Dolores off. Dolores is on her way to live her life in Paris. I know where ships docked on the waterfront. A map from the time… Continue reading
Plus ça Change – April 26, 2026 There are chapters, and then there are chapters. I suppose it depends upon what sort of “thing” you’re writing about. Mine are family stories, tales of life, the universe, and everything, set back in time. I want the characters to be real people… Continue reading
Plus ça Change – April 11, 2026 The chapter I’m working on is very much “author’s conceit,” in that I’m jonesing to write this. It is history that presents a wonderful vehicle for the narrative. Abraham Lincoln visited New Orleans twice as a young man. There is legend that on… Continue reading
Plus ça change – April 4, 2026 I have fun with this blog, toward two ends. I love to share what I discover from history. I also like to write about the process of writing, and that’s what this one is. I’m working on Chapter 10 (for now) in Laveaux:… Continue reading
Plus ça change – April 2, 2026 Real life is not neat with solid lines, clear boundaries, and binary conditions. Marie Laveaux owned slaves. That’s a fact. Many free people of color owned slaves. It was common. As horrific as this is to our sensibilities, this was the air within which… Continue reading
Plus ça change – March 30, 2026 On Dec 27, 1827, Père Antoine dedicated a chapel in New Orleans, to Saint Anthony of Padua. It looks a bit different today than in 1827, but it is still standing, at the corner of Rampart and Conti. This was the second Catholic… Continue reading
Plus ça change – March 28, 2026 I got to a point where I have a couple of chapters downstream I can work on, but one of those changes drastically. After those two, I was pretty much clueless. I have the history, but I don’t have the fiction. I’m sufficiently… Continue reading
