“During a steam train trip on the 4th of July, I discovered yet another connection just over an hour away in Franklin, PA. With the wheels of our passenger car clacking beneath my seat, I plotted Part Two of my novella-turned-novel.”
When I was in high school I learned that bias exists. The victors of war and conflict are the ones history generally favors. I constantly have to remind myself of that as I conducted research for my first intended-for-publication manuscript. I learned that I had to throw what I thought I knew about my state’s history, heck, even my country’s history, out the window with each source material I read.
Okay, not all of it. But a lot of it.
I’ve debated long and hard if I should include this section or not, because I don’t want any of the material to possibly give away what my novel series is about. Then I realized that if you’ve followed me on Twitter or my Facebook page or even this website long enough, then you already know that it’s deeply based on history.
So why not share much of what I’ve researched by including sources you may find useful as well? Have a read of some of the titles below. You may discover some interesting facts about American history!
*I have omitted just a few titles because they’d most definitely give too much away!
*None of the links are affiliate links. I do not gain any revenue from them. They’ve been added purely for educational purposes.
Historical
The Age of the Battleship: 1890-1922 | Brayton Harris
Always in a Hole | Arthur Vincent Ciervo
The American 1890s | Susan Harris Smith, Melanie Dawson
The American Civil War: A Military History | John Keegan
The Amazing Pennsylvania Canals | W.H. Shank
The Book of Irish Legends | Iain Zaczek
The Canal Age | Charles Hadfield
The City of Sedition | John Strausbaugh
Pennsylvania’s Coal and Iron Police | Spencer J. Sadler
The Day the Earth Caved In: An American Mining Tragedy | Joan Quigley
Everyday Dress: 1650 – 1900 | Elizabeth Ewing
Fashionable Folks | Maureen A. Taylor
Fire Underground | David DeKok
Forgotten Tales of Pittsburgh | Thomas White and Kyle McQueen
The German Immigration into PA through the Port of Philadelphia from 1700 – 1775 | Frank Reid Diffenderffer
The Hour of Peril: The Secret Plot to Murder Lincoln before the Civil War | Daniel Stashower
The Irish Americans: A History | Jay P. Dolan
The Inside History of the Carnegie Steel Co. | James Howard Bridge
Irish Pittsburgh – Images of America | Patricia McElligott
Keeping House: Women in Western PA, 1790-1850 | Virginia K. Bartlett
The Lincoln Trail in Pennsylvania | Bradley R. Hoch
Members Only: Secret Societies, Sects & Cults | Julie Tibbott
The Molly Maguires | Anthony Bimba
New York Night – The Mystique and its History | Mark Caldwell
Northwestern Pennsylvania Railroads | Kenneth C. Springirth
On the Irish Waterfront | James T. Fisher
Over the Alleghenies | Robert J. Kapsch
Pennsylvania Disasters | Karen Ivory
Pennsylvania Fireside Tales Vol III | Jeffrey R. Fazier
Pennsylvania Ghost Towns | Susan Hutchison Tassin
Pennsylvania Mining Families | Barry P. Michrin
Pennsylvania Railroads | Mike Schafer, Brian Solomon
Pennsylvania Trolley Museum | Edward H. Lybarger
Pittsburgh and the Appalachians – Cultural and Natural Resources in a Post-Industrial Age | Joseph L. Scarpaci & Kevin J. Patrick
Pittsburgh During the American Civil War, 1860-1865 | Arthur B. Fox
The Secret City: Woodlawn Cemetery and the Buried History of New York | Fred Goodman
Ten Days that Unexpectedly Changed America | Steven M. Gillon
Third Parties in American Politics | Howard P. Nash
The Scotch-Irish of Colonial Pennsylvania | Wayland F. Dunaway
This blog is not sponsored by Coca Cola, though it might as well be. It’s what I drink because I don’t like coffee ha! 
Cooking
Baking for Two | Tracy Yabiku
Maangchi’s Real Korean Cooking | Maangchi
Sugar-Free Mom: Naturally Sweet and Sugar Free Recipes for the Whole Family | Brenda Bennett
Writing
Structuring Your Novel | K.M. Weiland
Creating Character Arcs | K.M. Weiland
Outlining Your Novel | K.M. Weiland
