2025 was a challenging year for A Writer of History. I stumbled around searching for topics as well as the energy to be creative … other authors made great contributions with topics like History is Written by the Victors (Vanshika Jain), Living History (Elinor Florence), True Crime Historical Fiction (Maryka Biaggio), How Real Stories Inspire Historical Fiction (Caroline McGhie).
There was a post on historical sagas, an interview with Lisa Wingate, a look at AI and historical fiction, an interview with Geri Clouston founder of IndieBRAG, and reflections on the costs of being a self-published author titled Writing Realities.
I launched a series titled The Writing Journey which began with C.W. Gortner who died unexpectedly and way too soon later in 2025, and continued with Sophie Perinot, Jane Johnson, Eva Stachniak, Tracy Chevalier, Weina Dai Randel, James R Benn, Jamie Ford, Ben Kane and David O. Stewart.
I also featured Erin Davies on what I hope will be a 2026 series called The Reading Journey.
On the reading front, I wrote more posts on the books I’ve read as well as on the more general topic of reading historical fiction which I hope to continue this year.
The other topic I tackled was one I called Writing History. Stunned by the re-election of Donald Trump, I used this topic to track President Trump’s actions against Project 2025 as well as to look at how history and both fiction and non-fiction illuminates the dangers we face with this authoritarian regime. Sadly, the word ‘administration’ is no longer applicable.
But I titled this post ‘looking ahead’ — so, what can you expect?
- More on the writing journey series
- A focus on the reading journey series – please let me know if you would like to participate as a reader
- Ongoing reflections on the historical fiction I read and on the general topic of reading historical fiction
- Further insights on writing historical fiction – I hope to share insights from other authors as well as those I discover as I work on a manuscript titled The 7 Elements of Historical Fiction
Your suggestions are always very welcome!
On a personal note, my husband and I welcomed a new granddaughter on Dec 29th. Our fourth grandchild and first granddaughter. In addition, my husband and I are looking forward to new adventures in 2026 and I hope you are too.
Best wishes for 2026 – may there be fewer world conflicts, peace in Ukraine, a lasting truce between Israel and Gaza, and a return to sanity in America. (I could wish for many other things but these stand out for me.)
FOR MORE ON READING & WRITING HISTORICAL FICTION FOLLOW A WRITER OF HISTORY. There’s a SUBSCRIBE function on the right hand side of the page.
M.K. Tod writes historical fiction. Her latest novel THAT WAS THEN is a contemporary thriller. Mary’s other novels, THE ADMIRAL’S WIFE, PARIS IN RUINS, TIME AND REGRET, LIES TOLD IN SILENCE and UNRAVELLED are available from Amazon, Nook, Kobo, Google Play and iTunes. She can be contacted on Facebook or on her website www.mktod.com.
