This site is specially posted for writers, illustrators, museum professionals, and anyone else who is curious about objects. When I say objects, I mean art, artifacts, images, ephemera, maps, and anything else that strikes me as writing time worthy. For example, you can expect postings on everything from telephones to toilet paper, from swank books to online thesauruses. In short, this site aims to aim you in the right direction for creating a better understanding of where to go to find out about the objects in you encounter in your stories, your work, and in life.
If you’re wondering about me and how I became a guru d’objects, let’s just say I’m banking about 20 years in the museum field and more than that as an on-again off-again writer of nonfiction and fiction. Somehow I managed to convince a magazine editor to cut me a 10-part series deal before I’d even managed to graduate from college, and now I’ve started a new online kids magazine for the Washington State Historical Society called COLUMBIA KIDS that’ll launch in August 08.
Professionally, I’ve worked at museums both tiny and tremendous, including the National Museum of American History and the J. Paul Getty Villa, and am currently the Head of Education at the Washington State History Museum. For those who care about degrees of the letter variety, I hold a B.A. in journalism and art history from The Evergreen State College, an M.Ed. in integrated curriculum from University of Washington Tacoma, and am currently working on an M.F.A. in creative writing for children with the Whidbey Writer’s Workshop.
Through my work as a researcher, exhibition project manager, curriculum developer, and writer I’ve discovered a bunch of cool objects and resources to tap if you want to bring historical accuracy to your writing and museum work. And with educational research suggesting that kids learn more “history” from reading books and watching movies than they do in school, we’d best get crackin’.
Enjoy,
S.T. Lile (aka Stephanie Lile)
A fascinating, enjoyable to read blog site! I stumbled upon your reviews through Google Alerts on orphaned immigrants, which I subscribed to in writing my newest novel, THE IMMIGRANT.
I guess I am a “history geek” of sorts. Of course, I’ve been around long enough to experience a good deal of history–history that I call on frequently in writing. I started writing fiction about ten years ago and every day I wish I hadn’t waited so long.
Keep up the excellent writing. I plan to visit often.
Charles Clark
http://www.charlesclarknovels.com
Hey Charles,
Thanks so much for your kind words. Good luck with your novels–I look forward to checking them out.
History geeks rule!
ST