Years ago I became a Civil War reenactor and performed living history at historical houses and events. Considering I wear bloomers, bustle skirts and make steampunk jewelry, it was only a matter of time before my writing came to sync up with my style in fashion.

I have always been enamored with Victorian, Regency and Gothic novels. I love Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice. The Count of Monte Cristo, Tale of Two Cities and other classics are high on my list of favorites. It’s no wonder romance works its way into my fantasy. Or fantasy into my romance. My fantasy of late has most recently been Neo-Victorian and steampunk. I’ve written plenty of stories about Mr. Darcy, which certainly is my fantasy, but also stories that fall into a science fiction Victorian realm.

Two of my fantasy stories, The Quantum Mechanic, about a space time distortion which wreaks havoc and creates a steampunk world in this one, and Lady Chatterley’s Computer, an alternate reality in which Lady Chatterley has an affair with an A.I. were probably what got the ball rolling for me in this genre. Lately I have been working on The Memory Thief, a Neo Victorian novel romance set on a shogun like world.

Below are some of the websites I have enjoyed perusing while researching Victorian history. Some of the websites, like the ones for slang and names, are ones I kept open on my computer while writing my novel, The Memory Thief. Some of them I just like to read for fun. Yeah, I know, it’s probably a little eccentric that I prefer to learn how to speak like I live in a Jane Austen novel more than learning a practical language like Spanish.

Victorian or Neo Victorian Stereotypes and Tropes

Apparently my novel fits the majority of these tropes. Heh.

http://littleprofessor.typepad.com/the_little_professor/2006/03/rules_for_writi.html

List of popular books by year

This came in handy when I was trying to figure out when Uncle Tom’s Cabin came out in comparison to books by Oscar Wilde or Frederick Douglas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_years_in_literature

Handy Victorian Swear Words

Most of my characters don’t use these but I need them for background characters and bad guys and girls.

http://unhingedhistorian.blogspot.com/2013/01/top-ten-awesome-victorian-swear-words.html

Victorian Names

Since I don’t always know how modern a name is, it is handy to know if it existed or was popular in the correct era.

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~poindexterfamily/OldNames.html

Fantasy Name Generators

This website was a fantastic resource for the Victorian era but then I later used it for a medieval parody and a different era later on.

http://fantasynamegenerators.com/posh-names.php#.VK9HPyvF_DN

History of Swearing and other “Bloody” words

I like learning about the origin of language and this was both handy and interesting.

http://www.salon.com/2013/05/11/the_modern_history_of_swearing_where_all_the_dirtiest_words_come_from/

Victorian British Slang

https://sites.google.com/site/motman/Home/information/slang

http://brassgoggles.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=33697.0

http://www.tlucretius.net/Sophie/Castle/victorian_slang.html

Excellent British Insults

http://www.anglotopia.net/anglophilia/british-english-the-top-50-most-beautiful-british-insults/