Playing Catch-up

No, "catch-up" is not a polite Regency period game well-born young ladies played...it's me trying to get back into reality after a splendid trip to Orlando with Regina for the RWA National Conference. Today has been all about unpacking, laundry, going through the mail, getting back into real life (whatever that is), and sharing a few fun tidbits with you.

I ran across this advertisement in a 1910 issue of McCall's magazine when doing some research for a possible future book set in the early twentieth century:


So even one hundred years ago (this ad was in the August 1910 issue) it was thought necessary to post ads in national magazines asking for courtesy when using the telephone. The more some things change...

And speaking of catch-up...or ketchup...or stage blood...Regina and I both got a giggle from this:



The combination of two completely different literary forms--in this case 19th century comedy of manners with modern dark fiction--is being called "mash-up". Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is probably the best known example of this, though there are plenty of others. In fact, I had the pleasure to meet Sherri Browning Erwin, author of Jane Slayre (yes, Jane Eyre meets the undead), this past week at RWA. Have you read any of these 19th century mash-ups? If so, what did you think?