Your historical fiction depends upon your ability to use historical detail. This is a different world for your reader. You have to supply the images and they have to be the right ones for this world. What is the street like? Does it smell of horse shit? Of smog from Read more…
We live in a different age than most of our characters. Judging or condemning someone because of their gender, their sexual orientation, their religion, or their color is wrong in our time. Our characters lived in a different time. Don’t judge them for that and do not force them to Read more…
Today, I’m happy to have a guest post by Sarah Woodbury, author of historical fiction and fantasy novels. She’s posting on the quest for Welsh independence. Welcome, Sarah: When the Romans conquered Britain, the people they defeated were the Britons, the ancestors of the Welsh, a Celtic people who themselves Read more…
For this new novel (you might want to see the first chapter in my previous post) I want to include as an epigram the first few lines of a song that many Scots consider their national anthem, Flower of Scotland. Naturally, I contacted the copyright holder, The Corries, in order Read more…
CHAPTER ONE April 1296 “Just beyond the peak, my lord.” The outrider’s voice was dulled by weariness. Under a clear afternoon sky, the man pointed up a beech-covered knoll. Andrew de Moray could already make out the rumble of a moving army. He reined in his charger and jumped from Read more…
I write in more than one genre. My historical novels are the ones my agent had been pitching until I parted ways with him recently. I intend to write several more, although they have been postponed while I polish the fantasies we have completed. I have always thought that it Read more…
How much does it matter to you as a reader? How much as a writer? I have to admit it matters immensely to me, but I’m never quite sure where to bend when writing my own historical works. Examples of what annoyed me: a spinning wheel in 14th century England. Read more…