Smelling the past

There are a lot of jokes about how romance novels describe scents and smells. You know, how the hero smells of “man, pine and bad decisions?” That’s because the five senses are important in making a story come alive. But when you write historical novels, smells can be really complicated.

In my case, I have to ask myself: what kinds of fragrances might a woman in the 1920s be wearing?