Histories by Aldaron (cc by)
paduasoy posted "English Historical Fiction Authors," a group blog that has been going since 2011, where researchers and novelists post about British history. "There are posts about wool and war, Schools of Gardening for Ladies, beds and bugs, aspirin, theatrical censorship, magazines, tours of Ruthin and Snowdon, slipcoat cheese and posset, subversive fairy tales, and The Learned Pig," and more linked selections. Lovely.
My current job is reading novels and what's called "writing coverage" on them. (Coverage is the entertainment industry equivalent of a book report, wherein people like me read things so that more important people can pretend they read them.) I read 2-3 novels per week, mostly self-published genre novels.
Sara C. has an interesting job, and some good advice on context, details, sources and backgrounds for historical fiction, in answer to the question, "what were the details of everyday life in late 16th century Italy?"
The Old Room of Macabre Detritus by Stuck in Customs (cc by-nc-sa)
I want to know more about the material culture of a large English country house or great house in the Victorian era. ...if a house like this somehow got frozen in time, and you came along a century later and could wander around inside, what would you find?
Among the answers, Jane the Brown offers a very nice overview of the state of the estate.
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