Plus Ça Change – July 14, 2026 The author obsessively revisits his story concepts and implementation, and thinks again. OR It seems I have some of my best conversations with my characters while I’m in the shower. Perhaps the white noise of falling water blots out the vagaries of the… Continue reading
The Legend of Marie Laveaux These are the research articles and musings on my discoveries writing Laveaux: Mother. The oppression of slaves and free people of color in antebellum New Orleans has certain parallels in these days of modern times. The Making of Laveaux: Mother
Plus Ça Change – July 13, 2026 The chapter I’m working on is fraught, to say the least, in more ways than one. The working title is “Torture” so that gives you an idea. On April 10, 1834, Delphine LaLaurie was the absolute pinnacle of white society in New Orleans…. Continue reading
Plus Ça Change – July 7, 2026 You may have played with this toy. You have a wooden cup attached to a handle. There is a ball attached to the handle by a string. You swing the ball up and try to catch it in the cup. I’m crafting the… Continue reading
Plus Ça Change – July 5, 2026 I have a child use the word “yum” about the prospect of good food. A colleague asks, is that a period-correct term for 1822? It isn’t. It turns out “yummy yummy” dates back to 1861. A diary entry written by an English journalist… Continue reading
Plus Ça Change – July 4, 2026 …a flood rises to drown her soul, searching for its way to the sea. There is a pulse to writing. It has a beating heart. A story is a living thing. So it wakes up, gets shit done, goes to sleep for a… Continue reading
Plus Ça Change – June 21, 2026 I’m plotting out the series of chapters about the cholera epidemic in New Orleans in 1832. Lots of ideas… focusing on Marie as a healer. She has discovered empirically a way to treat this new disease. Marie has an uncle, Josias Kerr, an… Continue reading
Plus Ça Change – June 19, 2026 As noted yesterday in Antebellum Catholic Racism, I’ve returned to detailed plotting. This is my happy place. However, I have a tendency to fall deep into a rabbit hole of research and then bludgeon the reader with the results. Over time, I’ve learned… Continue reading
Plus Ça Change – June 18, 2026 I’ve returned to serious plotting, abandoning pantsing for the moment at least. The intricacies of family finances, property transfers, and inheritance (Gran Catherine dies) requires some serious thought on how to spin a fictional narrative that plausibly allows for all the details. Most… Continue reading
The Origin Story of Marie Laveaux These are the research articles and musing of my discoveries writing Laveaux: Dancer. Along the way, I learned a few things about the early 19th century in old New Orleans. I list them from newest to oldest. In the Flow of Time – the… Continue reading
