Welcome, Collette Cameron!

My fellow Romance Writers Weekly member, Collette Cameron, has just released her first historical romance short story!  Isn't the cover beautiful?

Collette is the best-selling author of the Castle Brides and Highland Heather Romancing a Scots Series. She spends a lot of time researching (as evidenced by her very interesting posts on Facebook). 

Today, she's sharing the"Top Ten Most Atrocious Historical Beliefs and Practices" she discovered.

Welcome, Collette!

I’ve come across the most, er, interesting facts while researching A Kiss for Miss Kingsley. I’ve chuckled at some, grimaced at others, and had WTF (White Turkey Feathers) moments with others.

I can’t help shake my head and ponder what it really would have been like to live a few centuries ago. Some beliefs and practices were rather astonishing, if not downright macabre.

Here’s my list of the top ten most atrocious:

1. Drugging children with “soothing syrups” which contained quantities of morphine, heroin, cocaine, and other lovely drugs. (Gee, and to think I struggled with giving my kidlets Tylenol or Benadryl.) 
2. The consumption or application of mercury for nearly everything. (Yep, that highly toxic stuff that’s guaranteed to send you six feet under.)
3. Wife selling-Say what? Seems that hubby could auction off wifey. You know, divorce was so frowned upon. So much better to sell one’s wife to be free of her.
4. The 19th century cure for ED (No, not eating disorder . . . erectile dysfunction) was ever so much more creative than taking a little pill. Strap on an electrical device meant to come in contact with a certain sensitive area of the male anatomy and ... ZAP! 
5. Feeling like you’re coming down with cold? Try a tobacco smoke enema. Not going any farther with that one. I might lose my lunch. 
6. And if the idea of a tobacco enema didn’t send you running for the door, there was always the good ole urine enema. Heck, you could bath in the stuff or even swig it to cure just about everything including body odor. Hmm, because urine smells so wonderful? 
7. Okay, this one is so gross, I almost didn’t include it. Anthropodermic bibliopegy, which is just a fancy way to say binding books in human skin. What nut job came up with that one? (I really shouldn’t have eaten before writing this.)
8. I’m blushing as I write this one, and so it will be very brief. The cure for female hysteria was quite simple. A doctor administered a massage to a certain part of a lady’s anatomy. Nuff said. 
9. Know what a Tosher is? Well, I’m about to tell you. During the Victorian era, they tootled around the sewers looking for things to sell. I’d laugh at this, or gag, except, I lost my wedding ring down the toilet. Really. Don’t ask. 
10. And last, post mortem pictures became all the vogue after the invention of photography, especially, pictures of children. While I’m at it, I might as well mention, Mourning Jewelry, which either contained or was made of the dead person’s hair. Bleck! 

There you have it! I bet you are so grateful those practices have been abolishes. Well, most of them have. I’ll leave you to guess which ones are still being used.

Interesting in learning more about "A Kiss for Miss Kingsley"?  Here's a taste:

Olivia Kingsley didn’t expect to fall in love and receive a secret marriage proposal two weeks into her first Season. However, one dance with Allen Wimpleton, heir to a viscountcy, and her fate is sealed. Or so she thinks until her eccentric and ailing father, unaware of Allen’s proposal, announces he’s moving the family to the Caribbean for a year. In two days.

Allen begs Olivia to elope to Scotland, knowing her father will refuse his offer of marriage after such a brief acquaintance with Olivia. Having recently lost her mother, and fearing for her father’s health, she refuses, pleading with Allen to wait for her until she returns to England. Angry at her hesitancy, and unaware of her father’s ill health, Allen demands she choose—him or her father.

Heartbroken at his callousness, but thankful he’s revealed his true nature before she married him, Olivia turns her back on their love. The year becomes three, enough time for her broken heart to heal, and after her father dies, Olivia returns to England. Coming face to face with Allen, she realizes she never purged him from her heart and once again the flames of love ignite, but is it too late? Does Olivia have any hope of winning Allen’s heart once more, or has he found another?   

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Award winning, Amazon best-selling author historical author, Collette Cameron, has a BS in Liberal Studies and a Master's in Teaching. Author of the Castle Brides Series and Highland Heather Romancing a Scot Series, Collette writes Regency and Scottish romances and makes her home in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and five dachshunds. Mother to three and a self-proclaimed Cadbury Chocolate chocoholic, Collette loves a good joke, inspirational quotes, flowers, trivia, and all things shabby chic. You'll always find dogs, birds, quirky—sometimes naughty—humor, and a dash of inspiration in her novels. 

Her motto for life? You can’t have too much chocolate, too many hugs, or too many flowers.

She’s thinking about adding shoes to that list.