Comedian Harmonists

Music

The Lighter Side of German Music

When most of us outside Germany think of German music — especially the kind that was popular in the 1930s — we tend to go stereotypical: Wagner, “Horst-Wessel-Lied,” “Deutschland Über Alles,” and so on. But German Jazz-Age pop could be… Continue Reading…

Pages of open books

Writing & Publishing

The End of the Beginning

In the end, it would always come down to this…I finished the first full draft of Bluejay Rises this morning. That doesn’t mean the book’s finished. (See this post’s title.) What it does mean is that it exists as a… Continue Reading…

Columbia record label for "Pack Up Your Troubles"

Music

Kate’s Songbook: Chapter 4

In Chapter 4, Kate has escaped from Oran after doing something unwise and ends up at Oran’s civilian airport, where she’s taken into custody by the local gendarmes and turned over to Inspecteur Principal Agassiz of the Sûreté Nationale. Luckily… Continue Reading…

Aerial view of Dauntsey House from the southeast

Kate's Places

Dauntsey House, Kate’s ancestral home

Kate DeWitt was born Catherine Gorham in 1903 in Dauntsey House. At least, that’s the story. There really is a Dauntsey House. It’s the manor house for the Dauntsey Park estate in northern Wiltshire, and it’s been around for a… Continue Reading…

Claudette Colbert in Torch Singer (1933)

Music

Kate’s Songbook: Chapter 1

Like most well-born girls at the beginning of the 20th century, Kate DeWitt (Our Heroine) had an education in music. She learned to sing “appropriate” songs and to play an instrument (she chose piano because there was one in her… Continue Reading…

Aerial shot of Los Marinos aerodrome outside Barcelona, 1929

Kate's Places

Why historical fiction is hard: Part 1

(First in a series of occasional rants about how confounding this genre can be.) …wherein our author discovers that even what should be easy is not easy. Our heroine Kate, an aviatrix, lands in the Barcelona of 1936. (Yes, there’s… Continue Reading…

Placeholder cover mockup for the KATE DeWITT ADVENTURES

General

Why we’re here

This site is where you can follow my chronicling of the adventures of the late Dame Catherine Victoria Gorham DeWitt OBE, a.k.a. Kate. The Kate DeWitt Adventures start in late 1930s Europe and will — depending on your interest, gentle… Continue Reading…