Kate Dolan – Award-Winning Author https://katedolan.com/ Comedy, Mystery, Historic Romance Mon, 01 Jun 2026 02:09:55 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 https://katedolan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/cropped-KD_favicon4-32x32.png Kate Dolan – Award-Winning Author https://katedolan.com/ 32 32 Camping with History: History on the Hoof at Paynes Prairie Preserve https://katedolan.com/camping-with-history-history-on-the-hoof-at-paynes-prairie-preserve/ Mon, 01 Jun 2026 02:09:55 +0000 https://katedolan.com/?p=3245 I wasn’t going to write about history at this park. We enjoy the wildlife and the peaceful views of the lake, but it’s not one of Florida’s older parks, and the only historical sites I remembered were the remains the homestead of a cattle driver from the late 1800s. That was not terribly unsual–there are […]

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]]> What Did Jane Austen Do For Easter? https://katedolan.com/what-did-jane-austen-do-for-easter/ Sat, 04 Apr 2026 16:55:06 +0000 https://katedolan.com/?p=3225 I’ve written four short novels and tons of blogs that center on Christmas traditions in Regency England, but I never even considered what Easter might have been like. What were Jane Austen and her contemporaries doing to celebrate the holiday? I was pretty sure she wasn’t pigging out on chocolate bunnies. But just to be […]

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]]> Earliest Celebration of St. Patrick Was in a Town Named for a Different Saint https://katedolan.com/earliest-celebration-of-st-patrick-was-in-a-town-named-for-a-different-saint/ Sat, 14 Mar 2026 21:34:35 +0000 https://katedolan.com/?p=3213 New York is generally considered to hold the world’s largest St. Patrick’s Day Parade. And they claim to be the oldest as well. But they’re not even close to holding that title. The first recorded St. Patrick’s Day parade was not in Boston, even though that city has the greatest concentration of Irish immigrants and […]

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]]> Camping with History: Manatees and the Joy of Being Wrong at Blue Spring State Park https://katedolan.com/camping-with-history-manatees-and-the-joy-of-being-wrong-at-blue-spring-state-park/ Sat, 28 Feb 2026 09:17:38 +0000 https://katedolan.com/?p=3207 My husband will not believe what I’m about to say: I enjoy finding out that I’m wrong—at least when it comes to history. When a visit to a historic site reveals information that blows away my long-held assumptions, I find myself in a state of awe and wonderment. So, when we camped at Blue Spring […]

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]]> Weird Industries from the Past: Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt https://katedolan.com/weird-industries-from-the-past-animal-mummies-in-ancient-egypt/ Sat, 31 Jan 2026 21:34:34 +0000 https://katedolan.com/?p=3191 We all know that the Egyptians mummified their kings and invested quite a bit of money and time in the process. What I didn’t know, until I saw an exhibit at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore recently, is that the Egyptians also mummified millions of animals with equally elaborate treatment. The sale of animal […]

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]]> History of Christmas Stockings: The Real Reason Hanging Up Socks in Your Living Room is Kind of Creepy https://katedolan.com/history-of-christmas-stockings-the-real-reason-hanging-up-socks-in-your-living-room-is-kind-of-creepy/ Wed, 10 Dec 2025 16:42:21 +0000 https://katedolan.com/?p=3178 We have lots of Christmas stockings. Some of them are so furry I feel like they should have a tail and a collar. Some have sequins. The oldest one is threadbare felt covered in sparkles and beads. None of them looks like anything you would or could wear, although my kids did try it one […]

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]]> George Washington Vandalized Here: The History of Tourism at Natural Bridge https://katedolan.com/the-history-of-tourism-at-natural-bridge/ Tue, 14 Oct 2025 14:54:45 +0000 https://katedolan.com/?p=3156 I love tourist traps—as long as they’re historic. I think it’s fun to imagine all the travelers who visted before me: parents in awe, children annoyed and underwhelmed and wondering when it’s time to eat. So, for years, every time we passed the billboards on I-81 in Virginia advertising Natural Bridge as a favorite site […]

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]]> The Great Awakening: Will We See Another One? https://katedolan.com/the-great-awakening-will-we-see-another-one/ Tue, 30 Sep 2025 19:08:52 +0000 https://katedolan.com/?p=3143 I went to secular public schools from pre-K through grade 12, so religion was not regularly addressed in school at all. Christmas was about Santa Claus and decorated trees. Easter focused on bunnies and eggs. Yet there was one religious event that managed to make it into our very secular curriculum. We learned about an […]

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]]> Camping with History – Ghost Fires and Orange Hats at French Creek State Park https://katedolan.com/camping-with-history-ghost-fires-and-orange-hats-at-french-creek-state-park/ Sat, 30 Aug 2025 16:52:59 +0000 https://katedolan.com/?p=3137 We picked this Pennsylvania park purely for its location and the fact that it had some trails we could hike. As we neared the entrance, I saw a sign for a national historical site and thought maybe we could make time to visit after we left. But it turned out that the national historical site […]

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]]> Tiki Review https://katedolan.com/tiki-review/ Sun, 03 Aug 2025 20:34:24 +0000 https://katedolan.com/?p=3116 The fictitious world of tiki became my paradise at young age. Some of my earliest happy memories involve thatched umbrellas waving in a warm breeze, colored lights flickering on cocktail tables in a darkened room, and lots of maraschino cherries on a fanciful plastic skewer. Trader Vics was our special occasion restaurant when I was […]

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