This week, we finally managed to install our new (not new ) item of furniture - a mid-18th Century grandfather clock. It's not bright and shiny like more modern ones, but a dark oak with a warm patina which the beeswax polish is drawing out. In order to set it up, we had to do a certain amount of research - how to hang the pendulum, where the weight went on the endless chain - and it got me thinking... where and when did certain divisions of time come from? The time periods which I have written either had household clocks or didn't, I have not written novels from the time of their invention. Clocks have been around for a long time, and the obsession with measuring time in an ordered fashion dates back to at least the ancient Sumerians. It was they who established a circular reading of time and, I imagine, the sixty seconds/minutes came about as much because it was an easy way to divide a circle as anything else. But it wasn't until much later that the precision of seconds ...
Today for #HistFicThursdays, I am so pleased to be hosting Fred Raymond Goldman with his latest book, A Virtuoso in America , as part of The Coffee Pot Book Club 's book tour. Read on to enjoy an excerpt from this fabulous book! First of all, let's meet the book... How do you reconcile a decision you made in the past when the world erupts in war, threatening the life of someone you love and believe you were protecting? Adrian Mazurek immigrated to the United States from Krakow, Poland, 14 years ago and is now a successful violin soloist and concertmaster of The Eleventh State Symphony Orchestra in New York. But despite his outward success, Adrian is inwardly harboring a shameful secret, one he has not revealed to anyone. However, that is about to change. Adrian plans to propose marriage to Suzanne, but he knows he must tell her the truth about his past before doing so. Riddled with guilt and shame, Adrian can barely look at himself in the mirror. How can he...