No one can deny that there’s a surplus of social media platforms on the docket. Facebook! Instagram! TikTok! Those are the big three driving forces at the moment. You can read about my launching into TikTok HERE.  So what’s a girl to do? Or more to the point, what’s an author to do?  Hire a Social Media Manager! My husband Norm and I have worked on many projects together over the years including work for our writing and publishing company, La …

LAUNCHING JANUARY 24 You’ve probably heard of TikTok, the video sharing app that has dominated the video sharing world for the last few years. At last estimate, the app has clocked over 3 billion installations and it’s now pretty much impossible to ignore in terms of marketing and social possibilities, even for introverted authors like me. Creators on the platform are getting very creative, hastily throwing together very short, but funny sketches, collaborative and informative videos and of course, dance …

The History of the Journal 1. I didn’t know when I started writing the Ginger Gold Mysteries that there would be a journal. When Ginger started hanging out in my head, I knew I wanted a woman who was ahead of her time ideologically, but I also needed her to have a set of skills that would be unique to women in the 1920s. The answer that came to me was to make her a former secret service agent during …

In Murder in France, Ginger Gold visits Cafe Le Dome in Paris. It’s been 184 years since Cafe Le Dome opened in Montparnasse, Paris in 1898, and its now a beloved place in Paris where you can dine on exquisite seafood. If you visited this cafe in the interwar period from 1918 to 1939, you would have experienced it as something much more than a place to eat and have a relaxing drink. Hosts of writers and artists frequented there …

The 1920s were known as the “Roaring 20s” because of great economic and social growth in the US. It was also a time of liberation for women as they broke free of many of the constraints of the Victorian era, which was manifested in the hair styles and fashion of the times. If you run an internet search of “Roaring 20s,” you’ll find pictures and videos of people dancing and having fun.  The twenties were also a time of unprecedented …

How long have you been working as an audio book narrator? How did you get into the business? I started narrating professionally in 2011. I volunteered for LibriVox.org from 2007-2015, and produced many solo and group projects for their site – including many of my favorite classic authors, such as Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Edith Wharton, Louisa May Alcott, and many more. The LibriVox founder started an audiobook production company and brought in some of the veteran narrators to work with him, …

Norm Strauss is the husband of Author Lee Strauss and part of the writing and marketing team at La Plume Press. As you can imagine, writing historical mysteries can be challenging. The ‘mystery’ part of it is hard enough of course. This often requires creative brainstorming that includes lots of scratching of the chin, and lots of ‘Hmm. What if this?’ or ‘What if that?’. It’s the science of inventive thinking, albeit with a vaguely dark twist to it since …

Set in what is historically one of the poorest parts of London in the area of Bethnal Green, this former Victorian Bathhouse was turned into the Repton Boxing Club in 1884. Because boxing requires little or no equipment (in the past bare-knuckle fighting was common), it gave poor and working-class men a chance to gain both fortune and recognition. The Club’s Motto was “No guts… no glory”, which meant that having a tough reputation was likely to get you somewhere, no …

This is a repost of one of the most popular blog posts from LeeStraussBooks.com What is better than a Summer day on the beach? Going to the beach or the local swim hole was a popular activity in the 1920s. Whether one actually went swimming or not, everyone wanted to be seen in their fashionable beach wear. Swimwear was originally made out of wool in the early 1920s. However this wouldn’t last for long, it was the roaring twenties after …