Inspired by Life ... and Fiction

Novelists bound by the pen, sisterhood, & more

From Steeple to Steeple, guest blog & *giveaway* by Carrie Fancett Pagels

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Thank you, gals of Inspired by Life and Fiction, for allowing me to guest post about my recent release, The Steeplechase, which is part of Forget Me Not Romances “Love’s Sporting Chance” collection! Living in a large catchment area referred to as Hampton Roads, Virginia, and sometimes Tidewater Virginia, I’m surrounded by history. In fact Yorktown (where I live), Williamsburg, and Jamestown … [Read more...]

Grandma’s Feather Bed

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Today I’m thinking about beds. Hoping for a nap? Nope. Doing research for a scene in a book, which sent me down a research rabbit hole. The articles and photos I perused about beds led to an “aha!” moment for me. Remember the  Hans Christian Andersen story, “The Princess and the Pea”? In the story, a skeptical queen decides to test a so-called princess by seeing if she can feel a pea … [Read more...]

St. Patrick – A man who loved his enemies

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Happy St. Patrick's Day! Most of the time, when people think of March 17, they think about leprechauns, pots of gold, and wearing green to avoid getting pinched. But the origins of this holiday are much more spiritual in nature. And I researched those origins, I found myself awed by the ministry of the man who became a legend. At the end of the 4th century, Maewyn Succat was born to … [Read more...]

All about the green in spring

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Since it's springtime and the leaves are turning that beautiful fresh green and since tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day and since we're moving to a new house about five miles down the road and my current office is in chaos, I thought I'd do a pictorial blog today. Flowers and trees can say so much more about these things than I can, anyway.  I will give you a quote to get you through the week (from an … [Read more...]

When private love letters…aren’t so private anymore

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My Darling Wife… On his thirty-third birthday in 1868, General William Hicks Jackson proposed marriage to Selene Harding, granddaughter of the founder of Belle Meade Plantation in Nashville (the setting of my Belle Meade Plantation novels). The General had his eye on Selene for quite some time. But he wasn't part of Nashville’s social circle, and Selene had the attentions of many eligible … [Read more...]

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