Jan132012

Silly Things an Alt-History Writer Researches, Gail Carriger’s Finishing School Series 1850s Victorian (Special Extras)

With your kind encouragement, Gentle Reader, I present to you the occasional series . . . weird things from my search history! A sampling of things I’ve done and researched the Finishing School series.

Tasks . . .

  • Made an outline (failure)

  • Made a mind map (success!)
  • Drawn a massive dirigible schematic plan
  • (Which made me get my Brambly Hedge books out of storage, great house plans in there)
  • Clipped printed and sketched characters
  • Noted additional world facts and thoughts
  • Formulated more complete series arc

Theodore Wendel – Lady with Parasol by Stream

Look up . . .

  • Oil Paintings from 1814, any with blue dresses in them?
  • Deadly plants that grow in England
  • Events in 1852 London
  • London Protocol (Treaty of 1852)
  • Fashion in 1852
  • Queen Victoria’s children and pregnancies
  • Wicker Hassocks
  • Evolution of Exams in Schools
  • History of Wedgewood Pottery
  • Internal schematics of early steamers
  • Etymology of the slang term peepers.
  • Serving tea & tea services
  • Introduction of military elements into lady’s dresses in the 1850s (used English Women’s Clothing in the Nineteenth Century)
  • Portraits in 1852

Working on some action poses with the Finishing School ladies from ace-artemis-fanartist (of course)

  • Opening of the season in London (family return just after Christmas, being associating in March, larger events begin in May) thank you What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew
  • A meal for mid March. (Things a Lady Would Like to Know March 16: Vermicelli Soup, Leg of Mutton and Current Jelly Sauce, Potatoes and Broccoli, Bakewell pudding)
  • Ways to tie a narrow cravat
  • Etymology of the word whizz
  • Expense and toxicity of oil paints before 1900
  • When did England officially abolish slavery? 1833
  • How to spell turbot
  • Location of British coalfields in the 19th century
  • History of drinking straws
  • Names of the parts of a piccolo

Want more behind the scenes sneak peeks? Join the Chirrup

Quote of the Day:

“A book is to me like a hat or coat – a very uncomfortable thing until the newness has been worn off.”

~ Charles B. Fairbanks

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Posted by Gail Carriger

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