When I’m writing a historical novel, I try to visit the primary settings and collect as many vintage images as possible of the location, fashions, and items in common use that correspond with the story’s time period. Having these images helps me visualize the places and things I’m describing.

In writing The Education of Karoline, finding images was much easier than for my stories set in earlier periods, thanks to availability of the Eastman Kodak Brownie camera that was introduced in 1900 at a cost of one dollar. The Eastman Kodak company had sold more than 1.2 million Brownies by the end of 1905, and a third of households in the United States owned some kind of camera by then.

I reviewed hundreds of photographs of the San Francisco/Sausalito area before and after the 1906 earthquake looking for images that might pertain to my story. Even those that weren’t relevant to the plot, gave me a feel for the time and place.

I hope you’ll like The Education of Karoline, and that you’ll find my descriptions vivid and accurate.