Tag Archives: top historical fiction authors

Favourite historical fiction author – Edward Rutherfurd

13 Monday May 2013

Posted by in Historical Fiction, Historical Fiction Survey, Top Historical Fiction Authors, Writing Process

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Edward RutherfurdA week ago, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Edward Rutherfurd about his latest novel, PARIS, an absorbing saga focused primarily on La Belle Epoque and the first half of the twentieth century.

Edward answered questions about PARIS as well as a few about historical fiction and his writing process. You can read the interview on the Historical Novel Society’s website.

In the reader survey I conducted last year, Edward Rutherfurd was selected by participants as one of the top historical fiction authors. Rutherfurd’s website includes all sorts of interesting information including one he calls Rules for Writing Historical Novels.

Paris: The NovelParis : City of love. City of revolution.  This thrilling and romantic story opens in La Belle Époque, the golden, hedonistic age of peace and joie de vivre. Moving back and forth in time across centuries, the story unfolds through intimate and vivid tales of self-discovery, divided loyalty, passion, and long-kept secrets both fictional and true, set against the backdrop of the city – from the summit of Montmartre to the gothic towers of Notre Dame to the grand boulevards of Saint-Germain, from the medieval world of saints and scholars to the modern French ideals of liberté, égalité, fraternité. 

Advice From Top Historical Fiction Authors

14 Friday Dec 2012

Posted by in Historical Fiction, Top Historical Fiction Authors, Writing Process

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When I interviewed some of the top 20 historical fiction authors, I asked each one what advice they would offer to other writers. Here’s what they said.

  • Find a story you are really committed to; write the story that’s in your heart; write what you want (Hilary Mantel, Susan Higginbotham, Helen Hollick)
  • Find an agent if at all possible (Sharon Key Penman)
  • Read and research widely and diligently, then let it simmer (Hilary Mantel, Elizabeth Chadwick)
  • Educate yourself on the world of e-books and self-publishing (Sharon Kay Penman)
  • Trust your gut (CW Gortner)
  • Find your unique voice (CW Gortner)
  • Master your craft (CW Gortner)
  • Shape your drama around history (Hilary Mantel)
  • Don’t bend the facts (Hilary Mantel)
  • Treat historical figures with respect (Susan Higginbotham, Elizabeth Chadwick)
  • Enjoy yourself (Elizabeth Chadwick)
  • Be proud of what you do (Margaret George)
  • Never give up; keep writing (CW Gortner, Michelle Moran)

So, if you are feeling daunted by feedback from your agent, uncertain of plot direction, distracted by Facebook, Twitter and other tools, proud of the day’s word count, disappointed with yet another rejection, exhilarated by some accomplishment, envious of a fellow author’s progress, pleased that you survived NaNoWriMo, or struggling for exactly the right turn of phrase – think of these writers who trod the same path and achieved success.

Listen to their advice, allow it to permeate your writer’s soul.

Tracy Chevalier – Remarkable Creatures

26 Monday Nov 2012

Posted by in Historical Fiction, Top Historical Fiction Authors, Writing Process

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I’m going to try something different. A few posts ago, I wrote about the ten essential ingredients for successful historical fiction. Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier is the first novel I’ve finished reading since that post. Chevalier was in the top historical fiction authors list so, why not rank her story against the list of essential ingredients?

Like a teacher marking the first exam of many or a judge ranking the first of many glorious dives, I will probably err on the side of being critical rather than generous. My apologies to the author.

Remarkable Creatures is the story of Mary Anning who has a unique gift: ‘the eye’ to spot fossils no one else can see. When she uncovers an unusual fossilized skeleton … she sets the religious community on edge, the townspeople to gossip – and the scientific world alight with both admiration and controversy. Prickly Elizabeth Philpot … becomes Mary Anning’s unlikely champion and friend, and together they forge a path to some of the most important discoveries of the nineteenth century.

(1) superb writing – Chevalier’s prose is a delight but I found her pacing too leisurely although one could argue that the pacing suits a character of quiet gentility like Elizabeth Philpot and the seaside town of Lyme Regis in the 19th century. The dialogue works very well, a great blend of speech patterns that identify the time and circumstances of various characters without weighing the story down in colloquial phrases and speech patterns. In terms of emotional resonance, I identified with Elizabeth’s desire to make a life for herself and her willingness to be unconventional, and empathized with Mary Anning’s passion for fossil hunting and her fierce drive to help support her family. The plot twists and turns although the story remains subdued. 7/10

(2) dramatic arc of historical events – Chevalier structures the story by tracing the timeline of Anning’s major finds using alternating first person narratives of her main characters, Elizabeth and Mary. While I found each voice engaging, ultimately the calm unfolding of this first-person narrative undermines the drama of discoveries that must have turned the scientific and religious world upside down. For me, tension was missing. 6/10

(3) characters both heroic and human – In my opinion, Chevalier gets top marks for her portrayal of the two main characters and through their eyes, other characters such as Colonel Birch, William Buckland, Elizabeth’s sisters and Mary’s mother Molly also come alive. 9/10

(4) immersed in time and place – every historical novel comes with expectations of the time in which it is written. As a purchaser, one expects to be transported to another world and like a hypnotist’s subject I was ready to dwell in the early 19th century the moment I opened Remarkable Creatures. On page 9, this sentence was the compelling step back in time: “Once our brother married there would be neither the place nor the money for us all to live at Red Lion Square.” Descriptions of Elizabeth’s brother John, Lyme Regis, the Assembly halls and Margaret’s one chance to capture a husband solidified the era for me and Chevalier held all senses firmly in that period. 8/10

“The bathing machine, a little closet on a cart, had been pulled far out into the water to give her privacy.”

“And they find Bishop Ussher’s calculation of the world’s age as six thousand years comforting rather than limiting and a little absurd.”

Describing a salve made by Elizabeth’s sister Margaret, “made of beeswax, turpentine, lavender, and yarrow.”

“I expect your ichthyosaurus has a place in Aristotle’s Great Chain of Being.”

(5) corridors of power – Chevalier writes convincingly of the small town minister who is scandalized over Elizabeth Philpot’s notions that God’s creations might have become extinct, science battling religion. She also positions the leaders of England’s Geological Society and noted French naturalist and zoologist, Baron Georges Cuvier, as masters of their domains of power in evolving scientific thought. Another corridor of power is that of gender in the early 19th century. Men had all the power, brother over sister, husband over wife, even Philpot’s young nephew has more power than Elizabeth to enter the premises of the Geological Society at a crucial point in the novel. 7/10

“Besides which Mary Anning is a female. She is a spare part.”

“God in his infinite wisdom has peppered this world with mysteries for men to solve.”

(6) authentic and educational – I now know a lot about fossils, fossil hunting, and the debates prompted by Mary Anning’s discoveries. Remarkable Creatures also illuminates the prejudices of the times – the role of women, the spinster’s lot in life, country versus city, social classes and pecking order. Chevalier brings these details out seamlessly but without interfering with the story’s flow. Through Mary’s discoveries and Elizabeth’s learning the reader also learns. What could be dull, scientific information is anything but. 8/10

“Mr. Buckland handed me the blade, then sat back to watch me scrape along one of the ribs, freeing and brushing away the limestone that clung to it. Slowly a clear line emerged, and because I went at it carefully, the rib weren’t nicked or scored, but smooth and whole.”

“… quarrymen and not considered suitable for any but the most desperate women.”

(7) ageless themes – struggling out of poverty, the destructive power of jealousy, standing up for what you believe in and for people who are powerless, finding one’s identity, dealing with fame, the understanding that freedom has its price. These themes ring out with conviction. 8/10

Elizabeth: “So be it. A woman’s life is always a compromise.”

Mary: “She had too openly flouted the rules of what was expected from a girl in her position.”

(8) high stakes – reputation, friendship and love are at stake in the story. Significant matters although I sensed the outcomes early on which in my mind detracts from the impact. The most compelling matter is the friendship between Elizabeth and Mary. 6/10

In Mary’s voice: “It seemed whenever I found something, I lost something else. I found an ichthyosaurus and lost Fanny. I found Colonel Birch and lost Miss Elizabeth. I found fame and lost …”

(9) sex and love – the only significant male/female relationship is that of Mary and Colonel Birch. Chevalier renders it with charm, creating tension in the telling and a strong sense of poignancy in the conclusion. 7/10

“There I found out that lightning can come from deep inside the body.”

(10) dysfunctional families – the families of Mary and Elizabeth are not dysfunctional, although they operate in ways that modern readers might find unusual. From my perspective, minimal drama emerged from the family dynamics. 5/10

While I enjoyed the story, the characters and Tracy Chevalier’s writing, Remarkable Creatures is a quiet book and not a compelling page-turner. But then, of course, this is only my opinion.

An interesting exercise. What do you think?

Top Historical Fiction Authors – C.W. Gortner

01 Wednesday Aug 2012

Posted by in Historical Fiction, Historical Fiction Survey, Top Historical Fiction Authors, Writing Process

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Today I welcome C.W. Gortner, eighth on the list of favourite historical fiction authors. Since survey participants made me aware of Christopher Gortner, I have read The Last Queen and The Queen’s Vow – devoured would probably be a better word! I hope you enjoy his thoughts about writing and researching historical fiction.

Why do you write historical fiction?     I’ve always been fascinated by history. I grew up in southern Spain, near Malaga, in a fishing village with a ruined castle that had belonged to Isabella of Castile.  The people of the past were presences in my childhood; history never seemed dry or distant to me. In college, part of my Masters was in history. Writing historical fiction became a natural extension of my lifelong interest; I always want to know more than the facts. I want to delve beneath the surface and discover the hidden stories.

You are clearly good at writing historical fiction. What do you think attracts readers to your books?     I can only quote what readers have told me: that they like the balance I bring to my characters. They tell me, I write about human beings, not clichés; that I show flaws and weaknesses as well as strengths. I also try to find the connections between them and us: that shared emotional experience that isn’t constrained by the differences in our eras.

Do you have a particular approach to research and writing?     I do tend to research quite a bit, and travel is essential to me as part of that. I must see the places where my characters lived, even if those places have changed, as they usually have. Landscape is important to me: what surrounds a character is as vital to their development as what they experience.  I also tend to write chronologically; it’s tough for me to jump around when I’m working on a book, even during the revision stage. I envy writers who can write any part of a story at any time, because much as I have tried, I can’t do it. I have to feel the story’s continuum at all times.

Have other writers of historical fiction influenced you and, if so, how have they influenced you?     Of course! I’m always influenced, in the sense that if I’m captured by a writer’s work I want to know how they did it; I want to dissect their language and discover the formula they used to create that sense of magic for me. But I have learned the hard way to rein in that tendency because it’s destructive. My voice is my own. It takes years for a writer to find his or her voice and it’s one of the most difficult skills to master, and one of the most fragile to retain. It’s frightening how easy we can lose our voice, especially when insecurity and doubt seduce us into wanting to be more like that other writer we admire. Truth is, we can only write as ourselves; it’s what makes us unique. To mimic someone else is a mistake.

What ingredients do you think make for a top historical fiction author? Do you deliberately plan for these ingredients in your writing?     I don’t believe in set ingredients, per se. Books don’t come with recipes: you can’t brew them all the same way. I love all kinds of writing within our genre, from the so-called romantic to the allegedly literary to everything in-between. I think what truly makes for success in historical fiction is authenticity. A writer must be true to his or her vision. It goes to what I said above, about not being influenced.  I plan what I think is important for my books: there are elements that I personally value in story-telling, such as details of landscape; emotional development; lack of clichéd values or heavy emphasis on one aspect of a story to the detriment of others. But that’s not to say I’m right. It’s what I prefer, and as we know, preference is subjective. One reader’s delight is another’s poison.

You seem to be creating books with two themes: (1) famous queens and women of power and (2) a spy series set in Tudor times. How do you balance these different projects?     They are very different animals, so to speak. My queens are based on factual stories: I have set timelines and facts to adhere to; I can’t just run amok inventing alternative stories for them. I must find my love for them as people within the context of lives already lived; I also must remain bound to whatever is known about their personalities. While I can, of course, expand on these traits and find alternate reasons for their behavior, for that is what a novelist does, if every known fact states that, for example, Isabella of Castile was pious, I have to work with it. I can’t throw it out because it’s inconvenient to my particular vision of her. With my Tudor spy series, on the other hand, my protagonist is fictional, a young man with a secret past who becomes the intimate protector of Elizabeth I. The setting is factual, as are many surrounding characters, but he is not: Brendan Prescott is my creation and therefore reflects a lot more of how I feel about that era; while I must stay true to his development as a Tudor man, he’s also a stranger in his own world, an exile. He lives on the edge, in the shadows: he’s every man and no man, at the same time. I love writing him because I am free to inhabit him without constraints. He is what I make of him, for better or worse.

What advantages do you think will come from writing a series? Any disadvantages?     The advantages, as I see them, are that I can grow the character and develop his personal storyline alongside the historical one. I deliberately set the first novel in the series, The Tudor Secret, before Elizabeth’s coronation, because the idea is that he and Elizabeth forge their bond through adversity, so that when she becomes queen (planned for the third book) they depend on each other and that dependency will wreak havoc in their lives. It’s not a romantic dependency: it’s the intimacy shared by those who are traumatized by their experiences and recognize in the other a safe harbor. But others will seek to destroy them because of it. Also, Elizabeth’s reign was long and quite eventful: Brendan can go anywhere, be anyone, as a spy. The possibilities are endless and very exciting to me as a writer. The disadvantages are, of course, the challenge of staying fresh; I don’t want the story to ever go stale or become repetitive. Also, every installment must stand alone in a certain way, so that readers can discover the series without feeling bound to its chronology. While reading the books in order will deepen the experience, one book should make the reader want to read the others, not necessarily oblige them to it.

What brand are you trying to create for yourself?     I rarely thought about branding when I started. These were stories I wanted to tell: that was my goal. Now, of course, branding has become essential and invested publishers strive to create it. Also, every writer wants to reach that point in his or her career when readers buy our next book because they love our work, regardless of the subject matter.  I honestly don’t know if I’m there yet; I would like to reach that plateau because I have other stories I’d like to write, about lesser-known eras. I don’t want my brand to constrict me, as these things tend to do. If I were solely responsible for creating my own brand— and I’m not, let us be clear about this: branding is a marketing effort that often transcends the writer’s intentions— it would be as an author of strong historical fiction that brings to life those misunderstood or maligned characters or eras. I am drawn to controversy and always will be; for a story to interest me, it has to have an edge. It can be subtle, embedded in the era itself; after all, not everyone can be a Catherine de Medici, but an edge has to be there, nonetheless.

What do you do to connect with readers?     I maintain an active social media presence, to the best of my abilities, as well as an e-mail address where any reader can write to me. I answer all my e-mail personally, even though the volume can be overwhelming at times. I also do events, attend conferences, and in general try to be responsive to readers. I even respond to criticisms, though I draw a line at rudeness.

What do you know about your readers?     Sometimes a great deal; sometimes very little: it all depends on what the reader wants to share with me. I know that almost all of my readers love historical fiction; that they want to discover a living history that entertains them but also makes them think. I also believe most of my readers are women.

What data do you collect about your readers?     I’m a firm believer in privacy. I don’t collect data. I have over 3,000 readers on my mailing list and I know nothing more than e-mail addresses for the majority of them.

What strategies guide your writing career?     Perseverance, to start: it’s a tough business. You have to want to do this, more than anything else. I also rely on the advice of the professionals who help guide me: my agent, my editors, the marketing experts. It’s a team effort. I have to stay open to different points of view. I don’t always know what’s best for me.

What would you do differently if you were starting again?     Hard to say, honestly; success is often a combination of perseverance, talent, and sheer luck. Fortune can play an incredible role; the right agent with the right material at the right time can cannon-blast an author into the stratosphere and guarantee a lifetime of accolades, though sometimes, (more than we think) that same author ends up crashing back to earth. Other times, it takes years to break in and build slowly but surely, as I did and hope to continue to do. Perhaps the only thing I’d do differently would be to not suffer as much as I did. It took me thirteen years to find that right agent, with the right material, at the right time; many of those years were steeped in anxiety. The seemingly endless round of rejection can do a number on you. Looking back, I realize that I put myself through the wringer; in truth, it happened as it was supposed to. And I learned so much about myself and writing in the process. I should have enjoyed the journey more; because it’s always about the journey, in the end.

Do you have any advice for writers of historical fiction?     Everything I said above. Trust your gut. Find your unique voice. Master your craft. Write the very best book you can and don’t settle for anything less. Never give up, if you want to see your words in print. But recognize that if you really don’t, it’s okay, too. I had to ask myself that question about ten years into it, before I got published, when I lost my fourth agent and had no drive to find another, nothing left to give: I put it all aside for a year. I made myself experience life without it. I was miserable, so I knew I had to try again. That was when I understood – the gods save me – that I’d never be satisfied until I succeeded.

Is there a question you would like to answer that I haven’t asked?     More of a statement: I love animals and I believe we can each make a difference in creating a humane world, where we no longer treat our fellow beings, who share this earth with us, as something disposable. Every time we lose a species, every time a pet is euthanized in a shelter or wild creature hunted down and killed for sport, we sacrifice the very privilege that being human entails.

Thank you for your candid responses, Christopher. I particularly like your comment about a writer’s voice as “one of the most difficult skills to master, and one of the most fragile to retain” and the notions that “books don’t come with recipes” and that “one reader’s delight is another’s poison”. My next sampling of your work will have to be the first in your Brendan Prescott series!

Top Historical Fiction Authors – Susan Higginbotham

17 Tuesday Jul 2012

Posted by in Historical Fiction, Historical Fiction Survey, Top Historical Fiction Authors, Writing Process

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I am delighted that Susan Higginbotham joins the Top Historical Fiction Author series today. She brings fresh insight to the dialogue about writing historical fiction and I know that readers and writers alike will enjoy her views. Two of her books that I can personally recommend as wonderful reads are The Traitor’s Wife and The Stolen Crown.

Why do you write historical fiction?     I sort of blundered into writing historical fiction a few years back when I re-read Christopher Marlowe’s Edward the Second online and became intrigued by the history behind the play. I began reading everything I could about Edward II, and when I read the story of his niece, Eleanor de Clare, it occurred to me that she would make a wonderful subject for a novel. In the process of telling her story, I found that I really enjoyed writing this sort of fiction, and it had the added bonus of giving me ready-made plots, as plotting has never been my strong point.

You are clearly very skilled at writing historical fiction. What do you think attracts readers to your books?     I think a lot of readers enjoy the fact that I tell my stories through fresh viewpoints—the story of Richard III’s seizure of power through the Duke of Buckingham and his wife, for instance, instead of through better-known characters such as Richard III himself or Elizabeth Woodville. I believe readers also like the fact that I treat the historical figures I write about with respect and try to avoid black-or-white characters and clichéd characters, like the dreaded bride “sold into marriage” to a mean old man with bad breath.

Do you have a particular approach to research and writing?     For research, I use primary sources as far as possible, even when that means I have to pay someone to transcribe and/or translate sources for me. (Fortunately, so many printed primary sources are available online now, that’s not as daunting as it sounds.) I also rely heavily on journal articles, which are often neglected by authors—there are some lovely nuggets of information in them. I love research and never really stop doing it while I’m writing, because there’s always a scene that will trigger a question and send me to my sources.

Since I write about actual historical figures, I know how my story is going to turn out, so I don’t always write my story in a strict linear fashion, but write a scene as it occurs to me and incorporate it into the story later. Except for the natural outline that the known historical facts provide, I don’t write according to a strict outline, so there are always some surprises along the way and changes in focus. For instance, my last novel, Her Highness, the Traitor, was supposed to be just about Frances Grey until I read a letter by Jane Dudley and decided that she needed a starring role as well.

Have other writers of historical fiction influenced you and, if so, how have they influenced you?     I’ve learned a great deal about how to construct a good historical novel from authors such as Sharon Penman, Jean Plaidy, and Margaret George. I’ve also learned from my own reading of historical novels what I don’t like as a reader, and therefore what to avoid.

What ingredients do you think make for a top historical fiction author? Do you deliberately plan for these ingredients in your writing?     I think the primary ingredients are good writing, good storytelling, and, above all, the ability to create memorable, well-rounded characters. I plan for these elements in my writing in that I try to write the sort of novels that I would like to read, but I’m not really one of those writers who thinks a great deal about the writing process.

How do you select new stories to tell?     I look for a historical figure who catches my interest or  who appeals to my sympathies. If if I start researching a certain character when I’m supposed to be working on something else, it’s a sign to me that I ought to write about him or her at some point.

What advantages do you think come from writing within a particular time period? Any disadvantages?     There are definitely some historical periods that are more in vogue with readers than others, such as the Tudor period, and there are always going to be those who suspect a writer of attempting to cash in if she writes about that period, although for me, it was a natural progression from the fourteenth to the fifteenth to the sixteenth century. On the other hand, a writer who sets a novel in a less popular period risks having a wonderful story go unnoticed because readers simply don’t seek out stories set in that period. In the end, I think a writer should tell the story she wants to tell, but anyone who’s writing for a commercial publisher can’t afford to ignore the market altogether. Sometimes you have to tell the story you want to tell that will also sell.

What techniques do you employ to write productively?     I often have a hard time buckling down to the keyboard, because I have a full-time job summarizing legal cases and by the end of the day, writing a coherent sentence is the last thing I want to do. Fortunately, I have a home office and a flexible work schedule, so I can rush to the computer when the mood strikes. When I’m on deadline, I just have to discipline myself.

Do you think of yourself as having a brand? If so, how would you describe it and how do you reinforce it?     I think of my “brand” as writing well-researched historical fiction from a less-traveled point of view. I like to write about figures who haven’t featured much in historical fiction or about figures who haven’t met with much sympathy from other novelists. I reinforce my brand with my blog posts, which focus on the facts behind my fiction.

What do you do to connect with readers?     I’ve been blogging for about seven years now, and I’m also active on Facebook. (I’m on Twitter too, but I send out links to my blog posts more than anything else—I just can’t be active there and be productive.) I post about my research and about topics that happen to catch my fancy, and I also let my sense of humor have full play there too.  In addition, I run a reader-oriented bulletin board, Historical Fiction Online. I started doing these things to market my first novel, which was originally self-published, but I’ve made some wonderful friends through these sites and have had some great discussions about books and history.  My blog and my Facebook pages also help to keep me connected with readers in between novels. At this point, I’d be on social networking sites even if I wasn’t an author, because they’re fun.

What do you know about your readers?     I know they have a high regard for historical accuracy, and I know that many of them like the same authors I do. And I know they have excellent taste!

What data do you collect about your readers?     I don’t collect data about them, though I read surveys about readers’ preferences and tastes, such as the one you did, with interest.

What strategies guide your writing career?     I don’t really have one, except to try to write consistently good books so my readers won’t be disappointed.

What would you do differently if you were starting again?     I’d start writing historical fiction earlier. I’d have a lot more novels under my belt now!

Do you have any advice for writers of historical fiction?     Too many writers get paralyzed with worrying over what they should or shouldn’t do—Should I join a critique group? Should I hire an editor? Should I pick a “marquee name”? Should I write about someone who’s been written about already?—that they end up not writing! I say just write the story that’s in your heart and take it from there.

I also think that writers of historical fiction need to be prepared to “walk the talk.” If you bill yourself as someone who’s concerned with historical accuracy, you have to be prepared for the fact that readers will expect you to be able to back up what you say with sources. I also think you have an ethical obligation to treat the historical figures you’re writing about with respect, even those historical figures you dislike, and not to smear a person’s reputation just to spice up your story or to make your protagonist look better in comparison. For at least some of your readers, you will be shaping their view of history.

But while novelists should take their responsibilities seriously, they shouldn’t  take themselves too seriously, and should cultivate a sense of perspective. A good sign that you are in need of a reality check is when you start comparing someone who gives your book a bad review to someone who tells you that your newborn baby is hideous. Your book is not a human being. It’s a product, just as the shoes you’re wearing and the car you’re driving are products, and not everyone is going to like the same products. If you realize that from day one, you’ll be a lot happier, and so will those around you.

Many thanks for your very interesting perspective, Susan. Some of the many aspects that stand out for me are: (1) writing about well-known historical figures offers a ready made plot structure which also allows you to write in a non-linear fashion, (2) “write the story that’s in your heart”, (3) that you run an online historical fiction forum – where on earth do you find time?, and (4) by the end of the day, writing a coherent sentence is the last thing you want to do – and yet you do it so beautifully!

Top Historical Fiction Author – Elizabeth Chadwick

04 Wednesday Jul 2012

Posted by in Historical Fiction, Writing Process, Historical Fiction Survey, Top Historical Fiction Authors

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I am very pleased to announce Elizabeth Chadwick as the fourth interview in the Top Historical Fiction Author Series. In a recent survey of 805 individuals, readers ranked Ms. Chadwick third in the list of favourite authors. A wonderful accomplishment.

I’ve read several of Ms. Chadwick’s books, the most recent being The Running Vixen. Originally published in 1991, the reprint clearly shows that Elizabeth Chadwick’s writing stands the test of time. I was immediately transported to 1126 and immersed in the tale of Adam de Lacey, Heulwen FitzMiles and England in the time of Henry I and his daughter Matilda.

Please use the comments feature if you have questions or comments for Elizabeth.

Why do you write historical fiction?   It began with teenage hormones and falling in love firstly with Keith Michelle when he played Henry VIII in the BBC series about his six wives, and secondly with a French actor called André Lawrence in a series about a handsome French knight living in the holy land in the 12th century. I had told myself stories from earliest memory, always verbal never written down and usually inspired by things that had fired my imagination – frequently cowboys and Indians, horsey stories, or traditional fairytales with a dash of excitement. While on my French actor crush, I began writing my own tale about a 12th century knight who had been born in Syria of Anglo Arab parentage, and decided to return to Europe. I had to research the period because I knew nothing about it. The more I researched the more interested I became and the more the story grew. By the time I arrived at page 500, I knew that what I wanted to do for a living was write historical fiction with strong themes of adventure and romance.  In the decades since then, I have continued to research and the mediaeval period still holds its fascination for me, as does writing about it.

You are clearly very skilled at writing historical fiction. What do you think attracts readers to your books?    I have always written for myself. That was how it began – stories to entertain me, but once they were written and I entered the adult world, I began to wonder if I could write historical fiction for a career for other people to enjoy.  Going from what readers tell me when they write to me, or talk to me on Facebook and Twitter, they love feeling as if they are there in the moment with the characters. They really appreciate that the characters are of their time, believable and not anachronistic, but also accessible. They enjoy the vividness, the colour and also the emotional and historical integrity.

Do you have a particular approach to research and writing?    Once I have decided who or what I am going to write about, my first task is to write a synopsis and the first three chapters that will sell the novel to my agent and editor.  That means a lot of polishing on the thinking and writing front over a short space of time and concentrated area. At this stage I will do preliminary research – enough to know the broad brush strokes and the major points I’m going to be using to dramatise the novel.  Once it’s a done deal, I do the writing and the research alongside each other.There are two  aspects to my research.  One is the must-have detail.  What do I have to know in order to write this novel? That is obviously a primary concern. The other aspect is ‘What might be interesting to know to deepen my awareness of the period I’m writing about and to help develop my characters and their situations?’   In other words I research both specifically and in a more random fashion.  Since I’ve been studying the 11th to 13th centuries for 40 years now, I  have a reasonable working knowledge base, but I’m still aware how much more I don’t know.

I also research in a multidisciplinary way. I research the primary sources to get a general idea of mindset, and by primary sources, I include archaeology and living history. I re-enact with early mediaeval living history Society Regia Anglorum to get a flavour of the life and times and to learn and experiment with the crafts and artefacts of the period. Re-enactment and archaeology bring history off the page and into the  three-dimensional which make all he difference to the writing when my knowledge is filtered through those mediums and returns to the page in novel form.  I go to locations to walk around and get a feel for atmospheres and a closer look at the local history of the area.  Of course one should never ever splurge one’s research into the novel as info dump.  It’s one of the fastest ways to send the poor reader to sleep. However, the more one knows about one’s chosen historical period, the easier it becomes to walk around within that period and the more the characters will be of their time.

Have other writers of historical fiction influenced you and, if so, how have they influenced you?    Several in my early days and for various reasons, not least that all do their research in depth. There are others beyond the three below, but these ladies were probably my major influences when I was starting out.

Roberta Gellis – Among her oeuvre, she has written several very strong romantic historicals set in the Middle Ages. I picked them up during my late teens and early 20s.  Bond of Blood, Knight’s  Honour, The Sword And The Swan, and the famous  Rosalynde Chronicles where I fell head over heels in love with Ian de Vipont – a tall, dark, handsome hero who could have been the generic romance novel cardboard cutout, but proved in Gellis’ hands to be so real that I swear I could see him standing in my room. Roberta Gellis showed me that it was possible to write strong historical romances where the characters were of their time and not modern people in fancy dress.

Sharon Kay Penman.  With The Sunne in Splendor and Here Be Dragons, Sharon showed me the other side of the coin to Roberta Gellis.  i.e. that it was possible to write deeply engaging and romantic (in the best possible use of the phrase) novels about real people and make you utterly bereft that you had to leave them behind when you came to the end of the novel. That you could weave the research into a fantastic story without warping the historical fabric out of true.

Dorothy Dunnett. Whenever I wanted to raise my game, I would read Dorothy Dunnett. Not that I ever have or will raise my game to her level. She was in a league of her own and still is. She taught me a great deal about the imaginative and fearless use of language.

What ingredients do you think make for a top historical fiction author? Do you deliberately plan for these ingredients in your writing?    A top historical fiction author will be someone who can tell a story that brings the past to life while maintaining the historical integrity.  There should be sufficient drama, history, entertainment and food for thought to keep the reader busy from beginning to end, and perhaps go away wanting to know more about the subject, and to read more of the author’s books! I don’t deliberately plan these ingredients, but hope that they happen as a matter of course.

How do you select new stories to tell?    Usually something will spark my interest when I am reading a primary source chronicle. I will think ‘Hmmm, I want to know more about this incident, or this person’. So I will go and find out more, and if that more is interesting and has a full story behind it, then it becomes a viable subject for future work. With William Marshal and The Greatest Knight, I kept coming across him whenever I was doing research on my earlier novels. I knew he’d led a full and adventurous life and I thought it would be interesting to explore in fiction. With the Eleanor of Aquitaine novels which are my work in progress, I know she has been written about before, but there is so much left to find out and to say, that I think my novels will bring a whole new set of facets to her life story.

What advantages do you think come from writing trilogies as you have done? Any disadvantages?    One advantage is a nice long publishing contract, so I can plan a couple of years in advance!  I have time for the characters to develop and change as they would in real life and to flow through the scenes like turning seasons.  Readers become invested in the lives of these characters and are keen to engage with the next instalment. Disadvantages – not so much a disadvantage, but something to be aware of, is keeping it fresh. You can’t suddenly decide you want to write something completely different in the middle of book two. You are in it for the long haul.  It is also better to make sure that your novels stand alone even while being part of a trilogy, so that a reader who picks up book 3 will not be bewildered, and will be encouraged to go back and read books one and two.

What techniques do you employ to write productively?    Backside on seat basically! I set myself a word count of at least 1000 words a day, seven days a week when I’m writing fresh material.  I don’t have a problem with writer’s block, but should the words be flowing more slowly, then I will write my scene as a rough sketch and come back to it later to fill in the colour.  Even though I am writing 1000 words a day, I give myself regular breaks. Some of these breaks will be of the go for a walk, make a cup of coffee type of moments.  Others will be dropping in to Twitter or Facebook for a few moments of chat.  This is extremely productive as it’s engaging with readers and with interested and interesting people. I have to stress that I can do this because it’s the way I work. I’m an extreme multitasker. if you’re someone who needs to sink into your world for hours on end my particular way of working won’t suit you. But if you can work on several levels at once, then it’s a good method. One of my breaks in the day is to go to the gym and this helped keep up my fitness and energy levels. I think this too is important.  Build some exercise into your routine.

Do you think of yourself as having a brand? If so, how would you describe it and how do you reinforce it?    Loosely I think. I haven’t pro actively gone out to build a brand, but that brand has formed around me by a couple of decades of really strong word-of-mouth recommendations by readers.  The perceived view is historical accuracy married to vivid storytelling that puts the reader there in the moment.  Again it’s what I’m told, and what I have built on from there. I run a blog called Living The History which contains essays on different aspects of the mediaeval period and characters I’m studying. (The most popular post is a mediaeval sexuality!).   I have extra historical information at my website.  On a daily basis, I put up books from my reference library and my historical photo archive at Facebook, and talk further about them in response to reader comments.

What do you do to connect with readers?    Simple. I talk to readers at Facebook, Twitter, Good reads and on blogs, and I just treat them as I would like to be treated myself  when talking to someone about a subject I’m interested in.   I chat.  I sometimes have a giggle.  I keep it good-humoured and I’m just me.  It seems to work. I never ever do it cynically either.  You have to mean it; you have to be yourself; and while it’s okay to put the novels and your success at the forefront every now and again, don’t make it a daily habit. Give the readers added value, and they will value you.

What do you know about your readers?    That they are lovely people from all sorts of different backgrounds round the globe who have a keen interest in history and a love of historical fiction. They want to engage; they want to talk history; they want to know.  But they also want to be entertained.  Age and gender are no obstruction.

What data do you collect about your readers?    If they write to me or openly volunteered information, then that tells me something about them, but I don’t go collecting information or keeping tabs on them.  That smacks too much of cynical marketing, and while cynical marketing will get you so far, it’s not always productive for the long haul and the hearts and minds.  I’ve done very well indeed by just being open and natural and me. Readers can smell the whiff of marketing a mile off.  Sometime being full on works, but you really have to know what you’re doing.  It doesn’t suit me.  I prefer the gentler approach with grace.

What strategies guide your writing career?    Professionalism.  Always hand in a manuscript that is the best you can do and ahead of deadline.  Do everything with a whole heart and to the best of your ability.  Play nice with others but always be true to yourself. Sounds a bit like a mantra for life I guess, but then writing is my life.  Keep an eye on the market, but don’t be it’s slave, and don’t get hung upon self-destructive emotions because someone has given you a snarky review or said something unpleasant about you online.  That’s their problem.  Don’t sweat the stuff you can’t change.  I have seen authors get themselves a bad reputation with readers because they bite back at bad Amazon reviews.  It doesn’t matter, really it doesn’t.  Be professional – as I said.

What would you do differently if you were starting again?     It’s a very different world out there now. I would probably network a lot more, and I would really love to have done a history degree  and learned the nuts and bolts of academic study in a dedicated course rather than having picked it up as I’ve gone along.  As a writer I wouldn’t have done anything differently.

Do you have any advice for writers of historical fiction?    Do not defame those who have gone before – maintain the integrity even if your characters are imaginary. You are building a world for your readers and it has to feel real to them, so that means you have to do the research.  You don’t have to dump it into the novel, but you do need it to inform your writing.  It’s like the difference between watching men fight with rubber swords where you can see them bending, and with the real thing with the battle light gleaming off the steel.  C.S. Lewis called it the deep magic, and if you write with that deep magic, audiences will know and appreciate that difference.  I would also add enjoy yourself!

What great insights and information about how you write, Elizabeth. I find the notion of ‘deep magic’ very intriguing. As someone who reached out to contact you for this interview, I can attest to your gentle and graceful approach as well as your professionalism. 

Readers and fellow writers will truly appreciate your candour.

Top Author Series – Helen Hollick

19 Tuesday Jun 2012

Posted by in Historical Fiction, Historical Fiction Survey, Top Historical Fiction Authors

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I am very pleased to announce Helen Hollick as the third author in the Top Historical Fiction Author Series. In a recent survey of 805 individuals, readers ranked Ms. Hollick in the top 20 favourite historical fiction authors.

I recently read Forever Queen and was fascinated with the historical setting – how do you discover all those details from such a long ago time? – and with the story’s fast paced action and vivid characters.

Please use the comments feature if you have questions for Helen.

Why do you write historical fiction?   I think because I feel linked to the past – after all, we were all there in the past weren’t we? Well, our grandmothers’ grandmothers were! I think a little bit of “memory” passes down with the DNA, and sometimes we feel the tug of that long, long, long link that binds us together.

You are clearly very skilled at writing historical fiction. What do you think attracts readers to your books?   Thank you. I think the passion I feel for my characters comes across in my writing. I fell madly in love with Arthur (Pendragon’s Banner Trilogy), cried buckets when I had to write the final scene for King Harold – and as for my pirate, Jesamiah…. gosh I love that guy!

Do you have a particular approach to research and writing?   I research the facts first, usually from primary and secondary sources, making notes as I go, then I plan out a rough synopsis based around the facts of the period – a bit like planning a basic route for a journey. I add in the secondary route – the made-up bits, and make notes of any secondary plots etc.

When I start writing, though, my characters often take me by surprise for I find myself writing scenes I had not planned.

I also keep a note book about my characters – jotting down every detail about them: hair, eye colour, any scars, or foibles. Their parents, grandparents, date of birth – enjoyments, dislikes etc. And I keep every notebook; you never know when you might want to look something up again – or maybe write a spin-off story.

Have other writers of historical fiction influenced you and, if so, how have they influenced you?   Rosemary Sutcliff. I love her stories. (I have nearly a complete set.) When I’m stuck, or despondent, or going through that “why am I doing this silly job” feeling, I read one of her books. Her use of language is awesome.

What ingredients do you think make for a top historical fiction author? Do you deliberately plan for these ingredients in your writing?   Integrity for the facts, believable characters and a good story that hooks you in from line one, and keeps you transfixed, wanting to know what happens next. The last page should leave your reader thinking, “I enjoyed that – what else did this author write?”

I try to deliberately plan it – but I’m never quite sure where some of the characters will take me – especially my Pirate. He has a distinctive mind of his own.

How do you select new stories to tell?   I don’t. They find me.

What advantages do you think come from writing a series like your pirate series?    For one thing – the protagonist gets to stay alive at the end of the book! I like the ongoing unraveling of what happens next in the adventure

Any disadvantages?   It is hard work keeping all the threads together – remembering something that happened in book one, and ensuring the continuity stays true in book four. It is also difficult trying to think up new adventures, keeping the impetus and excitement going (and the believability!) I enjoy the challenge, though.

What techniques do you employ to write productively?   Self-motivation? I’m not very good at that. It is so easy to get distracted by Facebook, or Twitter… and I hate writing of a morning, my brain just does not function before noon, so that is when I answer my e-mails, update my marketing etc, then set to work of an afternoon. I write best at night – I have a theory that most people are in bed then, so there is more imagination to go round.

Do you think of yourself as having a brand? If so, how would you describe it and how do you reinforce it?   I suppose my brand, now, is my pirate series – but basically, I am the brand. Helen Hollick. My new UK publisher suggested I ensure that all my UK book covers have a regular “feel” to them, and my name always has the same style, that way, my books are instantly recognisable as a “Helen Hollick.”

What do you do to connect with readers?   Facebook and Twitter mostly. I love chatting and “meeting” new people on line. I have so many friends scattered all around the world now – such lovely people!

What do you know about your readers?   Some love my books, some don’t. Some like descriptive battle scenes, some don’t. Some like in-depth facts, some don’t… in other words I can’t please everyone who may, or may not, enjoy my books. So I please myself. I write my books for me, because they are the sort of books I enjoy reading.

What data do you collect about your readers?   I don’t. Although I do take note of constructive criticism – I don’t always follow it, but if someone has a point, I take it. For example, if someone suggests I should not have my Jesamiah Acorne in quite so much trouble, I take the criticism on board. If someone says I should not be so descriptive when writing battle scenes, I don’t… that’s the way I write, and if a battle is included, it is there for a reason. And battles were not nice things in the first place.

What strategies guide your writing career?   I add something to my Facebook page every day, Tweet every day, blog when I can. “Being noticed” is so important to a writer – but not to the point of being a bore. I do not “talk” about my books that much. Maybe I will mention a character, I will link to one of my books, but I chat about lots of other things as well – my daughter’s horses and her side saddle riding, my cats, my dog. I learnt the hard way, when I was dropped by Random House UK, that no one is going to do your marketing for you, and the best way for your books to get noticed is to be noticed first as a person.

What would you do differently if you were starting again?   I would insist on better covers. Some of my early ones were ghastly.

Do you have any advice for writers of historical fiction?   Write what you want – not what others want you to write.

In conjunction with my UK editor, Jo Field, I have a ‘tips for writers’ little book on Kindle, called Discovering the Diamond – especially useful for writers thinking of going Indie published. There are do’s and don’ts, technical, and practical advice. I published it on Kindle because I found myself answering the same questions from new writers over and again. It is written very much from the “been there, done that” point of view.

Is there a question you would like to answer that I haven’t asked?   Well, I suppose it would be what are you going to write next?

I have a fourth Sea Witch Voyage coming out very soon –Ripples In the Sand, and I have been changing my mind like a weather-vane in a high wind as to what to write next… I have had several ideas, none of which have really galvanised me with enthusiasm. But I feel quite keen to do a spin-off series based around my King Arthur Trilogy about an ex-cavalry officer called Madoc. Madoc the Horseman….

So many interesting ideas to ponder. Readers will be delighted to know that new books are coming. Writers will be keen to sample Discovering the Diamond. I, for one, am delighted with the notion that you write at night because there is more imagination to go around!

Thank you very much, Helen.

Top Author Series – Margaret George

14 Thursday Jun 2012

Posted by in Historical Fiction, Historical Fiction Survey, Top Historical Fiction Authors

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I am very pleased to announce Margaret George as the second author in the Top Historical Fiction Author Series. Readers rank Ms. George 10th on the list of favourite historical fiction authors.

A few years ago, when I read Mary Called Magdalene, I was captivated by the imaginative story and engaging writing style. Here was a writer breathing excitement into a story I first heard in Sunday school. Margaret has other equally fascinating stories including Helen of Troy, The Memoirs of Cleopatra and Mary Queen of Scotland and The Isles. If you haven’t read any of her books, I urge you to do so.

Please use the comments feature to post your questions.

Why do you write historical fiction? I have always felt I was born in some other era and just ended up here accidently.  Writing historical fiction is the way I can parachute back into another time and live there for a while.

You are clearly very skilled at writing historical fiction. What do you think attracts readers to your books? People do say they feel like they are really there.  Perhaps that’s because I feel like I am there, too.  But it means that in order to recreate that for myself I have to shut out all reminders of where I really am, which means I am not the type to write chapters in a Starbuck’s!

Do you have a particular approach to research and writing? Being rather set in a pattern of doing things, I first accumulate books and information about my subject.  Then I read them and take notes, starting with the most general books on the subject and gradually getting more and more specific.  I find that often children’s books are good at giving an overall and easy to understand picture.  (Even the children’s book of the Civil War is detailed and somewhat confusing, though, because the subject is so vast.)  After I’ve absorbed all the knowledge I can from reading, I go to the places and try to relive the character’s life as fully as I can. I visit their homes and the places where significant (or maybe not so significant, just everyday) events of their lives took place.  Museum exhibits are helpful, too, but I have to go to them when they are on, not when they fit into my schedule.  Rome had a spectacular Nero exhibit from April until September 2011 which I made sure to go to, even though it’s early in my research for that book.  I came away with wonderful catalogues and videos—all in Italian!

Once I start writing I write from beginning to end as that’s the way the characters lived their lives.  Ideally I would do nothing else but write for about 6 weeks and then take a big break.  But I have to fit it into my everyday life, so often I can’t follow that schedule.  I always print out what I write at the end of the day and save it to read over the next morning, when I make my corrections and enter them into the text.  That gets me ‘into’ the next section mentally and I go on from there.

Have other writers of historical fiction influenced you and, if so, how have they influenced you? Gore Vidal—his Julian was a masterpiece and I got the Will Somers/Henry duo idea from it. Marguerite Yourcenar’s Memoirs of Hadrian—her style was poetic but not unrealistic and psychologically true to the Emperor Hadrian.  Zoe Oldenbourg—The World is Not Enough singlehandedly got me hooked on the middle ages when I was a teenager.  Anya Seton’s Katherine  was a model for a biographical novel.  Rosemary Hawley Jarman’s We Speak No Treason gave me a standard of evocative prose to live up to. 

What ingredients do you think make for a top historical fiction author? Do you deliberately plan for these ingredients in your writing?  I think the combination of escapism and education is what fuels a top historical fiction author.  People want to escape into another time but they want to learn about that time as well.  It should not serve as just wallpaper against which the action takes place.

I don’t consciously select or plan for these ingredients but I think they come with the territory once I am into the project.

How do you select new stories to tell?  The characters have to reach out to me in some way.  Usually they are ‘larger than life’ types, operatic characters who lived tempestuous lives.  Also, that their personal emotions and problems changed actual history.  Of course you have to go back at least 500 years to find individuals who have that power…before the days of committees and elections and constitutional (if any) monarchs.

What techniques do you employ to write productively?  There’s the ideal writing setup:  quiet, seclusion, no claims on my time or thoughts outside the room…then there are the somewhat successful attempts to create that.  I do try to write when I am most creative, from around 10 am to 3 pm.  I screen phone calls but defer talking unless it’s an emergency; ditto for emails.  I close the email function on the computer so I won’t be tempted to peek. Unfortunately my best time for writing means I can’t do any midday things so I can’t be a ‘lady who lunches.’

Do you think of yourself as having a brand? If so, how would you describe it and how do you reinforce it?  I didn’t set out to have a brand but recently a writer friend said, “You’ve got a franchise going!”  It wasn’t intentional but since I’ve written six biographical novels and they tend to be about the type of character I described above, I ended up with a brand inadvertently. If I wrote a different sort of book I would have to take a pen name as it would be false advertising at this point if it wasn’t like the others.   

What do you do to connect with readers?   I like meeting readers and do so whenever I can.  I go to book festivals, and do readings and signings.  Of course the internet allows me to interact with many more people than I can in person.  I have a website and a Facebook page, and try to answer all the correspondence I get through them.  I don’t Twitter, though, as I don’t have that much to say every day and frankly, keeping abreast of all that would take more time than I would feel comfortable with.

What do you know about your readers?   I don’t know exactly who my readers are, except for the ones who contact me.  I have a lot of older readers (one gentleman in his 80s writes me regularly) and a surprising number of teenage readers.  They tend to write me a lot and I always enjoy hearing from them.  I think the youngest reader was around 12.  Often they propose joint projects! They tend to be very creative.  One wrote a play about Clytemnestra, Helen of Troy’s sister, after reading about her in my novel.  Others have done graphic novels based on my work.

What data do you collect about your readers?   I don’t really have any formalized way of doing that. I’m curious so I wish I did.

What strategies guide your writing career?   Pace yourself and don’t follow trends.  It is so hard to guess what people are really going to want to read about, so select what it is you want to read about, hope others feel the same, and write about it yourself. As for pacing, there’s a certain minimum time I need to make a good product and it can’t be artificially hurried.  (Remember Diana Ross singing,  “Can’t Hurry Love”?) So I don’t make promises about when I can deliver something that I know I can’t fulfill.  I did that once and learned my lesson.

What would you do differently if you were starting again?   I’d start earlier so I’d have time to write more books!  But seriously, to be fair to myself, I had written other types of books before I discovered that historical fiction was my calling, so it was a necessary learning experience.

I’m tempted to self-publish as e-books some of my earlier works, under another name since they are different genres.

Do you have any advice for writers of historical fiction?   Be proud of what you do and gently educate people that real historical fiction is not the same as the potboiler genre.

Is there a question you would like to answer that I haven’t asked?   I’d just like to offer encouragement to anyone who feels called to try his/her hand at historical novels.  Don’t quench the spirit, as the Bible says.  Listen to what your inner self is telling you.  Do it for yourself, maybe even secretly, lest others discourage you.  Then, when it’s ready…send it out into the world and see what happens.  You will have had a rich experience in creating it, even if the world doesn’t greet it as a Big Happening.  It will have been a Big Happening to you.

Insight on her approach to writing, thoughts about why she writes what she does, intriguing advice for writers – what more can we ask for?

Thank you, Margaret.

Top Author Series – Deanna Raybourn

06 Wednesday Jun 2012

Posted by in Historical Fiction Survey, Top Historical Fiction Authors

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I am so very pleased to announce Deanna Raybourn as the first author in the Top Historical Fiction Author Series. Several weeks ago, I downloaded Deanna’s first Lady Julia Grey mystery, Silent in the Grave, read it with great delight then immediately downloaded the next in the series. I was hooked.

Deanna has graciously offered to respond to feedback. Please use the comments feature to post your questions.

Why do you write historical fiction? It’s the perfect marriage of my two loves, history and literature. Contemporary fiction is so immediate, so real. I like the gloss of romanticism that comes from writing about a different time and place where the setting may be quite exotic to us, but the people are very much the same. Plus, I like to write some fairly twisted things and I think it’s easier to do that at a distance. If I create a nasty murderer, it’s more fun for me not to worry if he’s lurking behind my shower curtain.

You are clearly good at writing historical fiction. What do you think attracts readers to your books? Thank you! First, I try to tell a good story with characters my readers will care about. I am rabid on the subject of historical accuracy and I work extremely hard to make certain my books are there. I do push boundaries a bit with the probability of something happening, but it always has to be completely possible. Of course, it’s complicated because there are things that get passed around and repeated as if it were gospel, and it’s hard to correct misimpressions. For instance, I keep hearing that Victorians were hugely uptight and very sexually moral and that premarital and extramarital sex were unthinkable–until you do the research and find out that country house parties for the upper classes were frequently just an excuse to facilitate affairs and that more than 50% of the lower class Londoners who married were already expecting their first child.

Do you have a particular approach to research and writing? Immersion! I read everything I can get my hands on in order to ferret out the facts I need but also to set the proper mood. I will watch movies and documentaries about my setting; I listen to music that feels appropriate for the time and place. I also make big collages with images related to each book to hang opposite my desk when I work. I like to have my resources at my fingertips when I’m writing. I’m also continually finding exceptional things to geek out over on the internet—for instance, Queen Elizabeth just made Queen Victoria’s journals available on a website she commissioned to mark her Jubilee. That’s going to be an amazing resource for those of us who love Victoriana!

Have other writers of historical fiction influenced you and, if so, how have they influenced you? The first big historical books I read were Anya Seton’s. I remember running across a condensed version of one of her epics when I was about seven and struggling to keep all the Saxons and Normans straight. It was hard going, but completely captivating. Then I got my hands on her marvelous novel KATHERINE. It’s a grand, sweeping book that covers about twenty years during the life of Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster, in the 14th century. I read it as a teenager and that book has always stayed with me. I was very surprised to discover last year that Katherine is actually my 17thgreat-grandmother! I am also terribly influenced by Victoria Holt in all of her incarnations as well as Jane Austen and the Brontës.

What ingredients do you think make for a top historical fiction author? Passion and authenticity go hand in hand. You have to care about the history but you have to be committed to telling a good story about people who seem to be real—even if you’ve conjured them out of thin air. I think you also have to be able to write a story that feels historically real but completely accessible for a modern reader. It’s a very delicate balancing act, really, because you don’t want characters that sound stilted, but you certainly have to make them believably “other” when compared to your contemporary readers.

How did you keep motivated and writing while waiting 14 years to get a book deal? How did it finally come about? I kept writing because that’s who I am—I tell stories even if no one is listening. During those years I wrote six or seven novels that are awful. They live in boxes in my attic and they will never see the light of day, but they were essential to figuring it all out. The book deal finally came about because after a particularly brutal round of rejections my agent told me to stop writing. She said I needed to take a break and do nothing but read for a year, that I needed to figure out who I was as a writer and the best way to do that was to figure out who I was as a reader. Although it was incredibly difficult, I did it. I just read for twelve months. I read only books I loved, and at the end of the year, I looked at what I had read and discovered they had many, many things in common. They were all historical, mostly British. They were witty; they were mysterious and romantic. They had really engaging characters. And then I realized that what I was looking at was a blueprint for the book I needed to write because, of course, the best book to write is the one you want to read. So I roughed out the plot for a mystery with a historical setting and two years later I finished it. By that time it had been three years since I’d talked to my agent! I sent it off to her and a week later she called and told me this was the book. That was SILENT IN THE GRAVE, the first Lady Julia Grey mystery. It took us two years to place it with a publisher, but immediately I saw a difference in the rejection letters. They weren’t form letters coming from very junior staffers at the publishing houses. They were personal critiques from executive editors who all had some very complimentary things to say even though they were passing on the book. Finally, the manuscript landed on a mystery editor’s desk at MIRA and she read it and realized it needed to go elsewhere in-house. She got up and walked it across the hall to the historical fiction editor who bought it that very month in a three-book deal. So my entire career hangs on the fact that one day a very lovely woman got up from her desk and walked half a dozen steps and changed my life.

What would you do differently if you were starting again? Nothing. I firmly believe I am exactly where I’m supposed to be on a path that’s headed where I want to go. Even those fourteen years of rejections helped build me into the writer and the person I am now. Of course, I couldn’t see it at the time! I wrote my first novel at 23, and at that age I would have been very ill-equipped to deal with all the demands that come with being published. I don’t think the writing was good enough, to begin with, but the author responsibilities would have really overwhelmed me. Plus, I had a child when I was in my twenties. Now that I’m in my forties, she’s almost off to college. I have the time and energy to devote to my career at the precise time she needs less of me. I’m also incredibly appreciative of success because I saw the other side of it for so long! I don’t think that would have been the case if it had come too easily. I was 38 when I first published and 43 when I hit the New York Times Bestseller list and that feels just right for me. Italians say a little suffering sweetens things, and it’s certainly been true over the long haul of my career.

Your series about Julia Grey: Did the idea for a series come after writing the first book or did you plan to write a series from the beginning? I was probably halfway through writing the first book when I realized these characters had much, much more potential than just one book. I also knew that a publisher would be more inclined to give me a multi-book deal if I could offer the possibility of a series. So that’s when I made the decision to wrap up the mystery in the first book but leave the romantic relationship dangling a bit.

What advantages do you think come from writing a series? Any disadvantages? The advantages are legion. It’s a flat luxury to be able to take so many books to write about a single set of characters and really explore their growth and their relationships in the course of their adventures. I’ve written over half a million words about these people, and I know them as well as I possibly can. Because of that, my readers know them too and they care what happens to them, deeply! The disadvantage is simply keeping it fresh. I take a break from the series every second or third book and that means I’m never too comfortable. That’s a strategy my editor devised and it’s genius!

What do you do to connect with readers? I blog, I am on Facebook and Twitter, and I do phone-in chats for reading groups. I also answer all of my personal email myself. Simple queries about releases will get delegated, but if someone takes the time to write an email or letter, they will get one back.

What do you know about your readers? They’re smart—scary smart! They are dynamic and enthusiastic, and they love caring about the characters I give them. I joke about being afraid of them because I killed off a character they liked and I am still hearing about it two books later! But I love that—it means they are connected to my work and, by extension, to me. I am always delighted to see readers when I’m at conferences or book signings and they astonish me by how well they know the books. Often, better than I do!

Mary Tod: On follow up, I asked Deanna to comment on the data she collects about readers (demographics, contact information and so on) as if planning a marketing campaign and whether she thinks about her writing in that way.

So interesting You should bring that up because I am deeply involved in a branding project right now! In light of the fact that my next two novels are going to be stand-alone, I am having everything redesigned–website, business cards, bookmarks, etc.– to reflect me as an author as opposed to anything specifically related to the Julia Grey series or Victoriana.

As to actual data, I don’t collect any. I have a very general picture of my typical reader–a college educated female–but it does vary. I just announced that the six novellas I’ve made a deal to write will be published in an ebook format only, and from the responses I can tell that most of my readers are tech savvy and very into ereaders. Out of all the feedback I had, less than five complained about not having a hard copy while some readers said they were happy to have an excuse to go buy an ereader!

What strategies guide your writing career? My gut. I have very good intuition and the older I get, the smarter I am about using it. I chose my agent based on my first reaction to her, and we’ve been together for fifteen years with just a handshake. As far as the work itself, my philosophy is to do whatever scares me the most. If I’m terrified, it’s because the project I’m considering is demanding that I push myself and stretch to the very limit of what I think I can do. And that’s a good place to be.

What a wonderful start to the series. Thank you so very much, Deanna.


Top Author and Top Blogger Series

04 Monday Jun 2012

Posted by in Historical Fiction, Historical Fiction Survey

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I’m pleased to announce a series of interviews with top historical fiction authors and top historical fiction bloggers.

After musing on the historical fiction survey, I thought that a series of interviews with top historical fiction authors and top bloggers would provide interesting insights. I have developed a set of questions and secured the agreement of all four top bloggers as well as seven authors in the top 20 group. Responses will be posted beginning this week.

Questions for top authors include:

  • Do you have a particular approach to research and writing?
  • What ingredients do you think make for a top historical fiction author? Do you deliberately plan for these ingredients in your writing?
  • What brand are you trying to create for yourself?
  • What do you do to connect with readers?
  • What strategies have guided your writing career?
  • What would you do differently if you were starting again?
  • and several more…

Questions for top bloggers include:

  • What new trends are emerging in historical fiction?
  • Is historical fiction growing in popularity. If so, why?
  • What are your marketing strategies for your blog?
  • Why do you think so many people blog about historical fiction or participate in blogs about historical fiction?
  • What advice do you have for writers?
  • and several more…

Top authors who have agreed to participate are: Elizabeth Chadwick (3), CW Gortner (8), Margaret George (10), Michelle Moran (11), Susan Higginbotham (15), Deanna Raybourn ( 17) and Helen Hollick (19). I’ve listed them along with their top 20 position taking into account authors with the same popularity ranking.

The top HF bloggers are: Reading the Past, Passages to the Past, Historical Novel Society and Historical Tapestry.

It will be exciting to hear their responses and see if some patterns emerge. Stay tuned.