This past weekend I attended the Historical Novel Society’s annual convention (more on that later) in St Petersburg, Florida. For a city of 250,000 residents, St Petersburg has a surprising trove of art museums, including the Salvador Dali Museum shown in the photo above. Of course I was on the lookout for Napoleon. Sure …
When I’m at the Louvre Museum, I seek out Jacques-Louis David’s imposing—if not exactly beautiful—painting of Napoleon and Josephine’s coronation. At thirty-two feet long by twenty feet tall, it’s slightly smaller than Veronese’s The Wedding at Cana, the Louvre’s largest painting. The French refer to it as Le Sacre, but its official name is The …
This morning, Memorial Day, my husband and I visited my parents’ grave in Arlington National Cemetery. This weekend the military places a small American flag at each of the 250,000 grave stones there. The President, of course, brings a wreath for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers. It’s a privilege to be buried in one …
I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve signed with a terrific and talented literary agent, Russell Galen of Scovil Galen Ghosh, to represent my Napoleon novel. Russ, who bills himself as the only person he “knows of who grew up wanting to be a literary agent,” represents an amazing group of authors, including many New York …
On May 5, 1821, Napoleon Bonaparte died in this room in exile on St Helena Island. Two years ago, on May 5, 2011, I was in Cape Town, South Africa, on my way to St Helena to do research for my novel. To commemorate the anniversary of the Emperor’s death, my husband and I visited …
Portrait of Napoleon’s close friend Jean Lannes at the University of Texas’s Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas. Click here.
Napoleon and Josephine Bonaparte’s Anniversary On March 9, 1796, twenty-six-year-old Napoleon Bonaparte married the thirty-two-year-old widow, Josephine de Beauharnais. The groom, enraptured with his more nonchalant bride, is known to have written passionate love letters, including one containing the line, “I shall see you soon—do not wash.” Nevertheless, while poring over military maps on his …
After seeing the photo of me riding an elephant, one of this blog’s readers asked if Napoleon had ridden a camel during his Egyptian Campaign (1798). Yes, Melanie! Here’s a photo I took of a small bronze statue of the Man himself on camelback. It’s displayed in the Musée Fesch in Ajaccio, Corsica, Napoleon’s hometown. …
I’m thrilled to announce that my Napoleon novel won the Best Fiction Award at the San Francisco Writers Conference. I’d submitted the first twenty-five pages of my manuscript several weeks ago and knew it had placed as a top ten finalist. It was a wonderful surprise to have it chosen as winner. This past weekend …
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In November, 2012, I took a break from writing about Napoleon to travel in Southeast Asia, visiting Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. It was primarily a bicycling trip, and, I assure you, my equipment was higher quality than what you see above in the photo snapped in the picturesque fields of Vietnam. Here’s another method …
