Need a historical map?

Need a map for your historical fiction?  Trying to get a fix on a historical location for your setting? The David Rumsey Map Collection Data Base and blog web site features historic maps for many geographical areas and timelines. 

According to the site, “Popular collection categories include antique atlas, globe, school geography, maritime chart, state, county, city, pocket, wall & case, children's, and manuscript maps.  You can browse map categories: What, Where, Who, When. The collection can be used to study history, genealogy, art, explorations, local and family history.”

The data base includes over 12,000 searchable maps.

Protect your computer and your information

Keeping your information secure on the internet is important in the digital age.  Google Good to Know gives you five tips for making sure your information stays safe and your computer virus free.  The site reminds you to:

1.      Create safe passwords and change them twice a year.

2.      Enable 2-step verification of password accessed sites.

3.      Update software when prompted because updates often contain important security fixes.

4.      Beware of suspicious sites that resemble authentic ones.

5.      Scan your computer regularly for viruses and malware.

Watch a video on how to perform these five tasks at http://www.google.com/goodtoknow/online-safety/

Get it done---a day at a time!

Every evening at 6 pm I get an email from http://idonethistoday  asking, “What’d you get done today?” I make a mental list of anything I did over the course of the past 24 hours with regard to my current historical fiction project. Then I take a few moments to reply to the email, and the site makes the entry on a monthly calendar.  When I log into the site, I can check the calendar for a full list of accomplishments I’ve reported.

Checking the monthly calendar makes me feel productive, even though on some days I didn’t accomplish much (or anything at all). Over the course of the week or the month, though, I can see that I did actually make progress in my research/writing/ marketing of my historical fiction. It’s all psychological, but it works to keep me motivated.  I believe in the tool’s pitch. The website claims that, “Inch by inch, anything’s a cinch. We’ll keep a calendar for you of what you got done. Look to your streak from yesterday to motivate you today.”

Stop Wasting Time!

If you are like me, you probably waste a lot of time checking email and social media sites before (or instead of) getting down to the nitty gritty of research and writing your historical novel.  Stay Focusd in a new Google Chrome extension that will help you stay focused on your work.

According to the website, the product works “by restricting the amount of time you can spend on time-wasting websites. Once your allotted time has been used up, the sites you have blocked will be inaccessible for the rest of the day.”

I need to take all the help I can get to avoid unwanted distractions! Like all the web tools I write about in this blog, Stay Focusd is free.

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

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.

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.