Barbara Bluestone
Barbara Bluestone is writing the romantic suspense novel "The Minotaur in Paris."
Sail the SS Normandie, the world’s loveliest ship
She was the most elegant Frenchwoman of her time. The finest designs and the costliest materials were lavished upon her breathtaking form. Her beauty seduced men on both sides of the Atlantic. But after reigning for four short years, she met a tragic end. When launched in 1935, the SS Normandie was the most […]
Discover 5 great memoirs about 1930s France
Great memoirs bring you into the heart of a life and a time. These extraordinary books offer five very different perspectives on the time. Meet a cocky writer challenging norms, a cosmopolitan sensualist, a passionate roving reporter with an uncanny prophetic sense, and a Paris-based writer who witnessed Paris descend into tragedy. Henry Miller, The Paris […]
Kraka’s Paradox
The Story of Kraka and Ragnar Lodbrok by Barbara Bluestone Published in Parabola‘s “Imagination” issue, Vol 34/1 Imagination is a heroic trait in Norse lore, as seen in stories as diverse as the pranks of the trickster god Loki and this legend, adapted from Ragnar Lodbrog’s Saga, which tells how a young girl won the […]
How to make everything easy
I once visited the Priory of Notre-Dame d’Orsan in the Loire Valley. Some years earlier, two young architects had left Paris and bought the medieval ruins set in a fertile farming landscape. Laboriously they renovated old stone buildings and created an extraordinary series of gardens inspired by the MIddle Ages. From the utiliarian kitchen garden, […]
“Finishing Touch,” a mystery story
EXCERPT March 6, 1936 dawned cold on a quiet Paris. A brisk breeze churned the dark waters of the Seine as I hurried across the narrow Pont des Arts, hanging on to my fedora with one hand and buttoning my tweed coat with the other. Early mornings are not my café au lait – but […]
Paris, 1936. As clouds of war gather over Europe…
Behind its elegant façades Europe was a violent battlefield. Warmongers harangued against pacifists, fascists attacked socialists, workers fought for their rights. In March, Hitler defied all treaties, sending his troops into the demilitarized zone of the Rhineland. As the Luftwaffe swooped over Cologne, its citizens cheered, church bells rang, military bands played a song whose refrain […]