Steven Leibo, author of the Sino-American Tales spent much of his adult life studying, teaching and writing about Asian Western relations. A few years ago, he began writing a series of historical fiction novels designed to both entertain and educate readers on this important element of the modern world.
Let’s hear about his experience with historical fiction. Over to you, Steven.
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This is going to sound schizophrenic, but not only do I love historical fiction, I’ve spent my life avoiding it at all costs.
Well, maybe I should back up. As a small child, history fascinated me; from a kid’s biography of Lincoln that I found in the back of my third-grade classroom to my fifth-grade obsession with King Tut.
But it was more than formal history that caught my attention. Back in the day, I was also fascinated by historical fiction, from Irving Stone’s novels on figures like Van Gogh to James Mitchner’s biblical epic The Source. In fact, I was so inspired I nurtured the hope of becoming a professional historian.
And once I accomplished that goal, after I had survived the graduate school and professional gauntlet enough to get a job, the first thing I decided was to always include works of historical fiction along with more traditional non-fiction assignments because as we all know only such fiction can spark the historical imagination in most people. Indeed, far beyond what textbooks and lectures can do.
Thus, my classes on Chinese civilization always included the novels of Lisa See, while my history of medicine featured Noah Gordon’s The Physician.
But sadly, something had been lost— my own ability to immerse myself in historical fiction. Now let me be clear, I loved the idea of reading historical fiction, but I was terrified that as I spent up to ten hours each week lecturing on world history, I might mix up what I’d learned as a scholar with the historical tales I found in novels.
As a result, I decided once I formally began my career as a professional historian to avoid reading any historical fiction. And that was the irony. I now denied myself access to the very material that had inspired me in the first place.
Thus, the great frustration of my career, a lifetime banned from my favorite leisure activity while spending my days teaching the very material historical fiction had inspired me to explore.
Eventually, I discovered a way to get past my very obvious loss. After years of producing non-fiction works of history, I tried my hand at writing my own works of historical fiction, works that would satisfy the professional standards of the profession as I appreciated them – that is novels especially well embedded in the best known, formally researched historical narratives.
Thus was born my first effort, Tienkuo The Heavenly Kingdom with a Gone With the Wind like focus on unrequited love in middle of the 19th century Chinese Civil war, war, not over slavery as in America but between the forces of the Manchu Confucian Empire and a heretical Christian sect governed by a fellow who claimed to be the little brother of Jesus Christ.
A first effort that given my background as a third generation San Franciscan from a family like so many in San Francisco of mixed ethnic heritage, Asian and Western, eventually morphed into the Sino-American Tales, a series of novels set both in China and the United States featuring characters whose personal backgrounds were a mixture of east and west all interacting with real people and events of the era. In short, this was the world I grew up in and knew.
If Tienkuo the Heavenly Kingdom was largely a coming of age novel set in China, it eventually morphed in its sequel Beyond the Heavenly Kingdom into a more ambitious work, featuring a family saga of the Downton Abbey, Gilded Age sort that sees the main characters from Tienkuo taking up lives in the West in a novel focused on growing anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States and the effort to transport revolutionary models of American female education to China.
But then finally came the reward. After half a century teaching world history, I finally retired at seventy-two and am only now taking up again that beloved genre as both a writer and now voracious reader. Indeed, reading all those great historical novels most of those reading this blog have enjoyed for decades all while adding to the Sino-American Tales series. The third book in the series, Under Heaven’s Watch sees the Brandt family, caught in the struggles from China to America over sex slavery in San Francisco’s Chinatown and the struggle for Chinese civil rights and the imperialist effort to carve up the Chinese empire like a melon. A book, which now is being complemented by the writing of a 4th book in the series titled Heaven Objects which is scheduled to be available in early 2027.
Many thanks, Steven for sharing your passion for history and historical fiction. When I learned history, none of my teachers were imaginative enough to include fiction along with the dry dates and important figures that they exposed us to.
I wonder if others have had a dry spell with historical fiction? Let us know.
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.
