historical fiction

I got the first scene of the new Demon Hunter short story done and I'm running into a couple of issues. One, it's very hard to make the dialogue not sound like 2011 and it's also too tempting to use so much 30's slang that it sounds like a bad Maltese Falcon rip off. I think I'm going to just write it and tweak the dialogue after the fact.

Secondly, it's hard for me to put descriptive scenes in my head without having a visual reference. I can not find references for 1930's hotels, the run of the mill type. I can find examples of the amazingly expensive ones but what about the more every day ones? Did they have two beds to a room? If so were they twins or doubles? I've stayed in historic hotels that have had doubles with these horrible metal headboards that remind me of hospital wards (which is what I went with). Did the rooms have their own bathrooms or is it communal? I know at least adjoining rooms existed.

And since racism/prejudice isn't the main point of this story, it's another fine line to walk between acknowledging it exists and going too far either direction (too accepting, too hateful). I've made the Soldiers of the Sun and their order accepting of all races/religions though I would think that even there, the boys need to keep their sexuality low key.

Some days I wonder why I don't just do pure fantasy and make stuff up as I go.