With the holiday upon us, I’ve been wondering what Christmas 1911 was like for the Irish emigrants and passengers who would later board the Titanic in April 1912.I remember a story I read in an Irish newspaper about a letter to Santa written in 1911 by children who hid their wish list in a chimney.When it was…See More

Imagine it's a starry, starry night with a calm sea, the water below freezing.A bitter chill is in the air as you climb into a lifeboat.In your nightdress.Brrr…You'd also be wearing a corset along with drawers, chemise and a corset cover.Many ladies on the Titanic found themselves in a quandary when the stewards summoned them to the lifeboats after the ship struck an iceberg at 11:40 pm on April 14, 1912.Take the time to dress or throw a warm coat over your nightdress and get into a…See More

Iceberg right ahead.When we hear those immortal words in a film about the Titanic, we stop munching our popcorn and hold our breath.We know what's coming. The Titanic is about to hit the iceberg and from that moment on, nothing will ever be the same on that grand ship.Passengers play with the ice chunks fallen on deck; third class cabins on F deck start to flood, while mail clerks scramble to save the sacks of mail.In first class, passengers feel a "jar" in their staterooms and wonder what the…See More

Katie O'Reilly is no lady.At least, not a first cabin lady. When Katie boards the Titanic at Queenstown, Ireland with a third class ticket clutched in her hands, she's running away from an unjust charge of larceny in the great house where she was in service.But Katie has aspirations to be a lady, not a lady's maid.She discovers there's much to be learned about these first cabin ladies with their silk gowns and dazzling jewels.Just who were these society ladies and what was their life like…See More

Teddy Bears, Polar Bears and Titanic, oh my. What do teddy bears have in common with the Titanic? Let's start with polar bears.And a little boy who was a passenger on the Titanic.In my novel, Katie O'Reilly, my hero, Captain Lord Jack Blackthorn, is watching Katie from the Promenade deck arriving on the tender, Ireland, to board the Titanic. He's fascinated when he sees her save the bag of a Jesuit priest from going overboard:He saw her help the Jesuit priest disembarking the ship when he…See More

Class. You either have it or you don't.Or so the saying goes.In 1912 class meant an entirely different thing. It dictated what you wore, how many times a day you changed your "ensemble," whether or not you were called a "lady" or a "woman" and on the Titanic, class dictated whether or not you found your way to the lifeboats.Shocking?Yes. But not entirely true. What is true is that first cabin "ladies" (if you belonged to Society, you were termed a lady; if you were among the working stiffs, you…See More

Which is bad for your health: chocolate truffles or romance novels?No, it’s not a trick question, but a recent article in the UK and also in the LA Times discusses the perils of reading romance novels and how it might affect your health.You can read the article here, but basically it seems we’re getting our fantasies mixed up with reality. I don’t know about you,…See More

A funny thing happened to my heroine, Katie O’Reilly, on the way to the loo when she boarded the Titanic. She couldn’t believe what she saw in the stateroom of Captain Lord Blackthorn (Jack):“I’m still waiting for you to remove your clothes,” Jack said, agitated. She was not listening to him, marveling instead at the modern appointments in his elegantly furnished cabin. She seemed especially intrigued by the bathroom with its double sink and commode.Had the girl never seen an indoor toilet…See More

Money, money, money….American millionaires had it and they wanted to spend it. While there were only 19 millionaires in 1850 in the U.S., by the end of the 1890s that number had grown to 4,000.At the time of the sailing of the Titanic, seven of the men on board were worth $420 million dollars in 1912 currency.The Titanic was their playground.Built as a “floating palace,” the Titanic had 318 first class passengers aboard who enjoyed every luxury, according to the Denver Times (“Men of Millions,…See More

You know it when you hear it…that lovely Irish lilt in a girl’s voice that reminds you of warm currant buns and hot tea on a cold, rainy day.But how do you write it?The accent, I mean.The answer is simple, you don’t.Instead of trying to recreate Katie’s Irish accent with a lot o’ fancy apostrophes and local words not known to a wide audience, I decided upon another way.Poetry.Not rhyming stanzas, but the poetry of the heart that comes from Katie’s character.Katie is nineteen, born in County…See More