If the British East India Company existed today, it would be a billion-dollar mega-corporation. In 1786 the company wanted a suitable port of "refreshment and repair" along the valuable trade route to China, and the tropical island of Penang.

Napoleon had a penchant for making the sign of the cross at moments of stress or exasperation. But he was not a churchgoer, and regarded religion as a tool to control the masses, not an answer to life's mysteries. He also regarded papal approval as necessary for his own legitimacy.

Napoleon Bonaparte wasn't much of a couch potato, but he probably would have watched the Superbowl. Football is our sport closest to early 19th century war.

One of the challenges when writing historical fiction is imagining physical and social conditions very different than our own. My Ethan Gage novels take place during the Napoleonic Wars. Did combat of that time produce Post Traumatic Stress Disorder?