You have a great story. You're fascinated with a time and place. But you don't want to make glaring or even minor mistakes. You don't want to alienate your pickiest readers (like me) with anachronisms, inaccuracies, or incorrect info. 

That's where I come in! As an insufferable know-it-all, trivia champion, and generally infinite font of useless facts, I can help you write a historically accurate work and win arguments with your friends.

Why me and not some other know-it-all? 

• I went to grad school for a really long time and studied media history, so not only do I have a very deep knowledge of the twentieth century in particular, I have the skills, strategies, and resources to fact-check your writing like a shark after blood.
• I have written a historical fiction serial, Passions Rising, which if nothing else was extensively researched. 
• As a reader and writer myself, I'm enthusiastic about your project and care about your success. 

Pick from one of the following service options:

5 concrete historical questions with simple answers.
This is for you if...

• You've got some specific questions that can be answered simply, but that might require a lot of research to prove with certainty.
  • Examples:
    • "Were there fire hydrants on Clio Street in New Orleans in 1860?" 
    • "Did Charles Dickens ever read Goethe?"
• You want a simple, definitive answer and a link to some sources. 
• You want answers that are rooted in scholarly, quality sources, not Wikipedia or random blogs.

You'll receive:

• Answers to your questions. Short and sweet.
• A bibliography of the sources used to justify those answers.
• A brief explanation if there are conflicting answers and I cannot definitively determine the single best answer.

5 open-ended or complex historical questions that require nuanced answers. 

This is for you if...

• You've got some specific questions that require more detailed answers than the first option.
  • Examples:
    • "What was the religious snake-charming scene in West Virginia like in the 1960s?" (I really researched that for someone!)
    • "In the 1860s, how would young people living in American cities have engaged in courtship?"

• You want to get some more insight into something specific and possibly do some background reading or research of your own

• You want answers that are rooted in scholarly, quality sources, not Wikipedia.

You'll receive:

• Answers to your questions. Approximately 300-500 words per answer. 
• A bibliography of the sources used to justify those answers and some other sources to learn more.
• An explanation if there are conflicting answers and I cannot definitively determine the single best answer.

10 Manuscript Pages of Historical Fact Checking 

This is for you if...

• You're almost done with your story and want to fact-check the historical aspects
• Your biggest question about the details in your story is "Did I get it right?"  (or maybe: "Will historians hate me?")
• You want to be sure that your work is historically accurate.
• You aren't sure you did enough background research, because you just wanted to write your story!
• You want to fact-check your work based on scholarly, quality sources, not Wikipedia or SEO-ified blogs...but you're not sure how to get that information or evaluate sources.

You'll receive:

• Line-by-line comments on the historical accuracy of your manuscript
• Suggested edits for things like facts, dialogue, details, geography, etc., depending on your preferences and project goals.
• A bibliography of the sources used to justify those suggested edits, along with suggestions for other sources to learn more.
• A short write-up of my general impressions related to historical accuracy

Terms and Conditions:

• I will spend up to 2 hours researching each simple question and up to 4 hours researching each complex question.  
• In the unlikely event that I can't find any good answer or information, I will give you a partial or complete refund.
  
• Historical questions can only be purchased in packs of 5, all 5 questions must be sent at the same time, and there are no refunds for "unused" questions. You can send fewer than 5 questions, but you'll get the best value from sending 5 questions at a time. 
• As with the point above, I will only fact-check manuscripts in 10-page bundles, though if you have a giant tome we can probably work out a discount.
• 10 pages = 10 manuscript pages. 1 manuscript page is approximately 250-300 words,  so 10 manuscript pages is approximately 2500 to 3000 words.
• I am fact-checking your work, not providing grammatical or development edits or recommendations. My comments will therefore be limited only to historical accuracy. 
• While I'm happy to point you to any sources I use for research, and will share with you any resources used that are out of copyright, I cannot provide copyrighted materials themselves; I will provide bibliographic entries and suggestions for libraries and stores where you can get them yourself.
• At this time, I can only work with manuscripts written in English.