18 February 2025
My favorite period
The 1870s are the era I most like to visit, because they were the last period before modern times. What makes life modern is our rapid contact with other people.
06 January 2025
The past is a foreign country.
The book isn’t about Australia, either, but about fourteen year old Susan Ferguson’s trip even further away, to her own New York City in 1872. Freaked out when a time machine somehow deposits her back there, she thinks people would be paranoid…
04 January 2025
How the story began
I used to tell ghost stories to my kids and their cousins when the families stayed together. I centered them around historic events or people who caught my fancy, such as Sarah Bernhardt’s lost diamond, the wreck of a steamer called S.S. Huron,…
02 January 2025
The setting
Along with America in the 1870s, New York City had just been turned upside-down by the Civil War (1861-1865). When Susan arrives it is facing multiple problems.
19 November 2024
Inspirations
Susan is based on a girl who spent a lot of time with my family. Her details are different, but Susan has her voice.
