With winter showing no signs of letting up in New England, seems a good time to stay inside by the fire with a few good blogs and web sites to read.  Here are some you may enjoy which include Victoriana, fictional and true crime. It’s hard to narrow it down to just ten, but here’s ten good ones you might have missed.  Hours of reading- pack a lunch!

  1. Murder by Gaslight  http://murderbygasslight.blogspot.com/

2. Clews- historic true crime  http://laurajames.typepad.com/

3. Anne Perry - Detective Pitt in Victorian England, and other great series  http://www.anneperry.net/

4. 1893 Columbian Expo in Chicago  http://columbus.gl.iit.edu/

5. Victorian Station- all things Victorian  http://www.victorianstation.com/home2.html

6. Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes (ASH)  http://www.ash-nyc.com/AboutASH.htm

7. Victoriana- free online magazine, great articles and links http://www.victoriana.com/site_map.htm

8.  Historic New England Homes and events http://www.historicnewengland.org/

9.  Victorian Society in America - lectures, events, tours, classes http://www.victoriansociety.org/

10.  Jack the Ripper http://www.casebook.org/

The pansies are blooming, the grass is greening, and the Borden house is getting a new lick of paint this week.  The Travel Channel returns next week to film a new -for-autumn bed and breakfast program, and April 15th will see the Return of the Mutton Eaters, the armchair Bordenian sleuths who gather once a year to chase the cold trail of the 1892 crime.  This year the group will have the annual banquet at the Quequechan Club on North Main since the old Abbey Grille is no more. 

The pace will be hectic with many venues to visit and the  focus this year set on Fall River and Swansea.  Experiments in the house, presentation of new information found over the year , and special guests are part of the annual endeavors.  April will be a very bizzie Lizzie month.

Miss Lizzie Andrew Borden shows no signs of leaving as August comes to an end.  With the advent of the long-awaited Parallel Lives publication by the Fall River Historical Society, and the mock trial at the New Bedford courthouse on the 24th, September promises to be another “Lizzie Month”.

As the leaf-peeping season comes to New England, a series of lectures will begin at Bristol Community College sponsored by the Fall River Historical Society and funded by The Grimshaw-Gudewicz Charitable Foundation.  The series, which begins on September 14 and runs through November 4th, will feature a wide range of Lizzie-related topics from the Paranormal to the Borden story on stage.

Those who follow the dark side of Victoriana, murder, mystery and mayhem might consider attending some of the events marking Poe’s 200th birthday.  Although Mr. Poe’s actual birthday on January 19th has just passed, there will be many events year long.  Visit the link  to see what’s in store for 2009 – just imagine what Poe might have made of the Borden story! http://www.nevermore2009.com/

The fifth biennial U.S. conference on Jack the Ripper will take place October 10-12th in Knoxville, Tennessee.  It will be held at the Four Points by Sheraton Knoxville Cumberland House Hotel, which is immediately adjacent to the World’s Fair Park and its distinctive Sunsphere and less than an hour’s drive from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. For more information please visit the website at http://www.ripperology.com/conference/where.html

The Salem local papers announced this morning the date of the long-awaited Lizzie Borden Museum -August 4th, the date of the murders of Andrew and Abby Borden in Fall River. According to Leonard Pickel, the designer of the exhibit “This is going to be very much like a museum. More like the Peabody Essex than the witch museums. Don’t expect to come and be entertained, but come to learn something about the true story of Lizzie Borden.”

It should be interesting to see how the Salem Witch venue will succeed with a Fall River legend.

http://www.salemnews.com/punews/local_story_207000848.html