sweet dreams are made of this...

I dreamed last night that I had stubble all over my face, because I'd forgotten to shave for a few days. Indeed, I tried to remember the last time I had shaved, and thought, "Hey, wait a minute! I thought the whole point of being a girl was that you never have to shave!"

Guess I was wrong.

And may I add that I looked pretty damn good with it?

(I blame Torchwood, which we watched for the first time last night, On Demand - how I love the modern world! - now that our cable wire is finally installed and I have lost my fear of all the Remotes....)

Historical Research

Last summer at Clarion, I had the joy of instructing 19 fabulous students whose instructors also included Karen Joy Fowler, a writer and person I really admire. (Her best-known novel is The Jane Austen Book Club, but my favorite is The Sweetheart Season. And her short stories are pure genius.) We're all still on an e-mailing list, and interesting stuff comes up sometimes - this exchange was so useful I thought I'd share it with the Populace:

Former Student: I'm working on a period piece and have been doing some fascinating research at the library - the San Francisco Chronicle dates back to the mid 1800s and it's ALL on microfilm. It's giving me a lot of great details, especially the ads and the classified sections. But it's all written in formal journalist style.
I was wondering what resources might be good for learning the everyday, boring details of life in these periods. For example, if I was sitting in a trolley in 1903 and overheard a 22-year-old woman chatting with a friend, how would she speak? What would she be talking about? What would she wear and smell like? What would they eat at lunch? Where are they going and why?
Any tips?
(  Replies (edited by EK) from Karen Joy Fowler, Delia Sherman & others: )

Hope this is helpful!