Your God Sibling. The one you told all your secrets to.

God Sibs… godsibs…ta-da…gossip! Often near your own age, your God Sib was the Godchild of your parents. Your God Sib was the one you trusted above all others. More than your sisters. More than your brothers. Even more than your cousin, unless, of course (as often happened), your God Sib was your cousin. All these secret little talks between God Sibs, all this gossip!

These stories are from many different ages, probably mostly true, often believed, always fun to know. Each one could be a book in its own right, and probably a movie!

I have always been in love with books.My mom used to take us to the library. I loved the long, long sidewalk and the grass, as we walked up to the huge library doors. I only wanted one book – it was filled with angels with glittery golden wings. Gold on every page. I can still see those pictures. A story? I have no idea. All I knew was that when I had to give it back, I had to wait until the next time to get it again.

When I was three, I discovered there were words in books – so that’s how my Mom was reading to us! I scribbled some straight-ish lines on a piece of paper and handed it to her. What had I written? I couldn’t wait to hear. Nothing? But I wrote words! So she decided she would have school every morning, teaching us, my sister and me, letters, showing us how letters could line up to make words. Magical!

I think we all have a dream title. Maybe billionaire. Maybe test pilot. Or actor. A lot of actors say the first time they were on a stage with an audience, they were hooked. Author? Amy Tan said she didn’t want to be an author anymore, she just wanted to go back to being a writer.

Writer…for me, that is the magical word. How lucky to be a writer! That’s what I have been, in one form or another, all my life. I feel the same compulsion that one of my heroes, Ida Tarbell, felt: “To rescue women from the obscurity of history.” To see a little bit about the historical novel I have just finished writing about Jeanne de Charney – and hoping my agent will soon find just the right publisher for it – go to my website: ebmcgee.com. There is even a fun interactive quiz.

Why HistoryGossip? Doing research, I come across so many stories that make me think, “What a fascinating novel this would be!” But since I am not going to live to be 300, I will never write them. So HistoryGossip! And isn’t all history (well, most, anyway) really just gossip in one form or another? This is what is so fascinating about it.

I will add a new entry to HistoryGossip every Thursday. Enjoy! And if you have a story you would love to see here, let me know! I already have one – about teenage newly-weds Marie Antoinette and Louis-Auguste (she was 14, he was 15), thanks to Deb Gottlieb.