A woman's place is as the author

Even though my books are genre novels, not feminist writings, and even though the main character is male, being a feminist has had a lot of influence on them. 

One reviewer mentioned for Forever's Too Long, "I especially appreciated the way that the female characters (both heroes and villains) were fully formed, intelligent, and autonomous - delightfully atypical of the genre." I've kept that going with women who have their own sense of purpose, their own careers (including uncommon ones), references to problems both historical and ongoing, etc. That won't go away. 

And there won't be any nonsense of having strong women just so the man can prove himself even stronger by conquering them/putting them in their place. Rafael won't slap a woman to cure her hysterics. He's not weak enough to need that. 

No, my hero gets to have real, meaningful, supportive friendships. He experiences fear and disappointment, wistfulness and hope, affection and joy. He sees beauty as well as darkness in the world. He has time for introspection as well as action. You wouldn't think it would take feminism to write a well-rounded male character, but a lot of male writers are steered by growing up with toxic masculinity. 

But he is emotionally vulnerable-- that's another side to feminism. Allowing men to have a full range of emotions, not just anger, resentment, and pride (wait, wrath, envy and pride are almost half the deadly sins right there). Why do men hate men so much? 

Finally, feminism has been intersectional for most of its history. Seneca Falls meetings dealt with abolitionism and feminism both. Abolition took priority for feminists in terms of action, because of the severity, but once the Civil War was won, women's suffrage was the next big thing for many activists. Social work began because of women with education and influence becoming involved with immigrant and impoverished communities and seeing a need for political policies and trained workers to pave paths to a better life for the marginalized. 

So, my women's history course dealt with a lot of racial concerns, too. I've researched it and read widely outside of feminist writing on race, but there are a lot of connections.

Natural History

I've always loved reading about the sciences. For the most part, that's influenced my participation in the Para-Earth series, where paranormal and science fiction (in the form of parallel Earth evolution) come together. However, I'm finding my interest in animal life is even useful in the Forever Detective series. Many folklore entities are closely connected to the natural realm. Even unnatural creatures like vampires are able to shape shift and control animals to do their bidding-- so it helps to know about those animals.

For instance, there are many types of bats, and vampire bats are a tiny minority. Insectivores are far more common, and the flying fox type-- the largest bats-- are not only cute, but they live on things like pollen, nectar, and fruit. If a vampire turns into a flying fox, it tells you he doesn't think like other vampires.

For Forever Haunted, I had to do some research on moths, which was rather fun and unusual. I've learned about jaguars, too, as I will be using that information later.

I need to know about horses for book 3, Forever in Deep. I also need horse racing information. Anyone want to recommend good sources?

Time, time, time, see what's become...

I thought one of the wonderful things about starting a  series in the 1940s was that there would be so much time to move forward in.

And yet the second book, set only a few months after the first, is rooted more-or-less in the 1920s. A ghost becomes a sort of secondary client for the detective as his attempt to determine a house is not haunted does the reverse. His heart goes out to a murdered flapper and he seeks out a murderer on this very cold case in the hopes that getting justice will help her find peace. During the Prohibition Era, gangsters were often treated like celebrities and the elite might be found rubbing elbows with them. What kind of chaos happened when a teenager house-sat for his family at a manor too close to the Canadian border to be dry?

For Rafael, there's a bit of nostalgia in re-visiting the 20s. For me, there's a lot of research! And a little bit of irony.