Welcome to the conversation!

Join historical novel writer Marilyn Weymouth Seguin here every week for conversation about digital tools you can use for researching, writing, revising, publishing and promoting your work! Buy the eBook at this link.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Civil War research tool

Do you write about the Civil War?  Do you use primary source documents as research for your historical fiction?  If so, the interactive Civil War poster found at http://teachinghistory.org/civil-war
might be a great tool for your research—or use it to inspire you to explore primary documents on your own as a basis for your research. 
According to the site, “As explorers of the past, we can look at a variety of sources—maps, letters, diaries, objects, music, images, and more—to piece together a sense of the Civil War’s complexity. The images and related resources from this poster are designed to get students thinking about how primary sources can help uncover stories about the past.”  Although this tool is designed primarily for teachers and students of Civil War history, it certainly has applications for researchers and writers of historical fiction. How do you access primary source documents for your research?  Share your tips he

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Mobile device apps for writers

Have a mobile device?  Can you recommend a good writing app?  For the iPad, Apple’s Pages is a great full featured word processor with plenty of templates and some basic editing tools. Its $9.99 price may be a bit pricey, but this app is definitely the one to choose if you plan to do much writing on your device. If you want a less expensive app, particularly for capturing great ideas, making lists, or capturing quotes from readings, then Clean Writer may be a good choice for you.  It is a mere 99 cents.  Other good apps for writers include:  Advanced English Dictionary and Thesaurus (free) and Grammar App HD.  Do you have a favorite writing app for your mobile device?  If so, tell us about it here.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Researching old newspapers and the American old West

Recently I found a great website that is a product of the collaboration between journalists and scholars. Stanford University’s Rural West Initiative is a goldmine of credible research information for writers of historical fiction about the American West.  According to the site’s home page,

“The Rural West Initiative aims to create a unique collaboration between journalists and scholars to investigate the forces transforming the rural west.  We are generating reports and stories ourselves and will commission more from reporters, scholars, researchers, and students across the West. Our work uses extensive data visualization as well as text, video, and still photography to tell our stories.”

One of the links I found useful is the interactive map of the growth and decline of U. S. newspapers. So if you are wondering what your historical American characters were reading as early as 1690, you can find out at this site.