Laura C. Rader

February 14, 2024

Happy Valentine’s Day! One of the most enduring myths regarding the Puritans of 17th century New England is that they were asexual both in and out of marriage. The confusion stems from their religious beliefs and doctrines regarding sexuality. Within marriage, sex was highly encouraged as a means of procreation, and also as a desirable…
December 21, 2023
December 21, 2023
December 18, 2023

Sinterklass und Zwarte Piete, Netherlands and New Amsterdam My main character, Benjamin Waite, and his friend Stephen Jennings, traveled hundreds of miles on their quest to find their captured wives and children and ransom them back from their Algonquian captors. As they must travel through the colony of New York, only recently taken by the…
November 23, 2023

Colonnade in the Temple of Hathor at Dendera, Egypt I am currently working on the first draft of my third novel, propelled recklessly forward by the tides of NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month. The Title: Lady Libertie’ The Pitch: It is the mid-19th century, and Frédéric Bartholdi is a wealthy, young Parisian sculptor who longs…
October 8, 2023

“Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.” – Zora Neale Hurston Hurston (1891-1960) was an American anthropologist and writer known for her research and writing on slavery, race, folklore and the African-American experience. BIBLIOGRAPHY INDIGENOUS PEOPLE Alchin, Linda. “Algonquian Names” Siteseen, Ltd. January 16, 2018, https://www.warpaths2peacepipes.com/native-american-indian-names/algonquian-names.htm Bourdeau, Melina. “Field Research…
October 8, 2023

As an example of confidence and optimism, and an amazing feat of navigation in a day and age without a means to measure longitude (basically, distance across the ocean), the voyage of Christopher Columbus from Europe to North America is impressive. As we all know, however, his misidentification of the Caribbean islands as the East…
October 4, 2023
October 4, 2023

I can’t believe it’s happened again. I was enjoying a perfectly good online workshop on editing, until the presenter insisted that using a form of the verb, “to be”, followed by a past participle, would lead most agents to reject a manuscript for using “passive voice.” I politely posted a message in the chat (to…
September 20, 2023