From the Stage to the Page - Becoming a Writer of Historical Fiction by Deborah Swift

I have had several careers in my life, moving from one thing to the next as circumstances changed. In my fifties, I had a change of focus in my work life and made another switch - from teaching set and costume design to writing a novel. It is never too late to embark on something new!

Earlier in my life I worked as a designer for theatre and TV but the work is very long hours – I can vividly remember ‘all-nighters’ where we painted the stage floor-cloth overnight, fueled by coffee and chocolate biscuits. Costume fittings were usually after rehearsals in the evenings. So once I had children, it didn’t fit with family life too well, and I was looking for an alternative with a better work/life balance. I had a transitional period where I did freelance design work and taught history of the theatre and history of design to university students. In a way in the theatre I was always working with words – dissecting a play, really getting to know it, is a good way to get under the skin of its story. And you learn a lot about how drama is driven by character and conflict, and how to condense that into action.

I have always written poems and stories for my own pleasure and eventually I took the plunge and went to study for an MA in Creative Writing. These courses sometimes get a bad press, but I was lucky; the course was brilliant, and I met some other exceptional writers. On the course I learnt the bare bones of structuring a novel, and was lucky enough to have extensive critiques of my first novel by my fellow students. I filled a few waste-paper bins whilst I was there!

My first novel was only historical because I needed a background that suited my story, but I have always read a lot of historical fiction, and now I can see that some uncanny instinct must have led me to set my novel in the past. I like to learn something whilst I’m being entertained, and I find other eras fascinating. For me, I think the process of re-imagining history began with having to re-imagine settings for plays. So I had to do research in a similar way as I do now, to find out what people wore, and what their environment might be like. I’m used to looking at artworks and analyzing them for visual information, and studying texts. Plays are very condensed stories, which need to move quickly and be told in a couple of hours, which is good training for writing a novel. And working in the theatre you pick up an ear for dialogue that will move the action forward.

This year will see my millionth word in print after completing eleven novels, all of them historical fiction. Once I started I just became hooked and couldn’t stop! My first novel was set in the seventeenth century, an era I keep returning to because it is a time of pivotal change in English history, a time riven by war, plague, religious turmoil and political upheaval. Entertaining Mr Pepys is the third book fictionalizing one of the real-life women portrayed in Pepys’ Diary, and covers the year of 1666 when the Great Fire of London erased the old city to make way for the one we know today. It returns to my love of the theatre, and tells the story of one of the first actresses on the English stage. Returning from the page to the stage was a thrill for me, and the book was a joy to write.

‘Entertaining Mr Pepys’ is published by Accent Press in ebook, paperback & audio.

You can buy the book here

www.deborahswift.com  

Twitter @swiftstory

Follow Deborah on Bookbub for her bargain books.

Losing the History and Sticking With Romance by Anna Belfrage

I’m going to come right out and admit it: the reason I write is because it allows me to indulge the huge romantic streak within, the one that has me sighing happily whenever true love overcomes whatever obstacles crosses its path. This doesn’t mean that I necessarily write 100% pure romances – you see, I get distracted by the historical setting, by the political scene of whatever time I am writing about. It is called context, and it is massively fun and elucidating to research and write. It is also essential when writing historical fiction as people read historical fiction to be transported back in time. Ergo, if you’re writing a love story set in the 14th century then you need not only to get the love and kisses right, you also need to do so without dressing Mr Hero in anachronistic clothes or allowing Ms Heroine to walk about with her hair uncovered and a revealing décolletage—unless Ms Heroine is a lady of the night, of course, in which case I’d suggest you dress her in yellow. 

I love history. I love well-written historical fiction. I cringe at historical novels that have people peeling potatoes in 11th century Ireland or lounging on a sofa in the 13th. That beautifully written historical romance, with the beautifully depicted protagonists, loses some of its glow if the context is incorrect. I suppose that may just be me, but incorrect historical facts yank me out of the story so fast I end up gasping like a landed trout. Not a pleasant experience…

So far, I have mostly stuck with combining my romantic streak with my passion for history. Yes, I’ve added a titillating angle in my first series, The Graham Saga, by making one of the protagonists a most reluctant time traveler. Well, she is until she meets Matthew Graham, the man destined to be her other half no matter that they were born three centuries apart.  

However: while writing books set in the 17th century, books set in the 14th century, polishing a Work in Progress set in the 13th century, I have all the time been working on a different project. One where romance and suspense takes over from romance and history. All told, I’ve invested twelve years in this particular story, so obviously I must feel it is very good—or important (to me).

It all began with lions. Yes, yes, I can hear you going “Qué?” 

It did. It began with these vague images of a young girl with the most amazing set of blonde curls running barefoot somewhere very hot. Red dust rose in her wake, the shapeless linen garment billowed around her as she ran and ran, accompanied by three half-grown lionesses. Very strange. Even stranger was that when I saw that same girl as an adult, that head of curls was tamed in a short edgy haircut, her toned legs encased in black jeans. Plus she was in London and to judge from her attire and the laptop she was carrying, she was a busy something in a financial environment. 

Obviously, I had something of a dilemma on my hands. How was I to marry those images of the running child in old-fashioned clothes with this high-flying professional? How to create a plausible context in which lions ran with the girl without snacking on her?
“Plausible context?” Helle Madsen looks at me over her laptop and grins. “Good luck with that one.”
I actually think I have found a good backstory. Helle can’t express an opinion. You see, she doesn’t remember. Nope, she has no memories of her first and very distant life in which her only friends were those three lions—until the day Jason made his first appearance in her life.
“Ah, yes.” Jason smiles, those copper-coloured eyes of his lighting up. “She was for once silent and neat—not as much as a smudge on her garments, not a single wayward curl escaping her heavy braid—standing some feet behind her father. Such a pretty little girl. Such a lonely little girl.”
“I was?” Helle asked, sounding intrigued. “And how would you know?”
Jason just smiles and winks at me. You see, Jason does remember—all of it. And I can tell you that while he is more than happy at having found his Helle again after spending fifty lives or so looking for her, he sincerely hopes his presence won’t nudge all her dormant memories to live. After all, there’s a reason he’s been tumbling through time desperately searching for her and hoping to make amends…

Things are further spiced up by my third reincarnated character, gorgeous but dangerous Sam Woolf. Jason would tell you everything that happened in that first life was Woolf’s fault. So would Helle—if she remembered. So would Woolf. Thing is, he doesn’t care: he set out to destroy them last time round and hopes to finalise that particular task this time round.

So, peeps, how does that sound? Whatever your opinion, I think we can all agree on the fact that this does not qualify as historical fiction, and this in itself leaves me somewhat out of breath. I like staying in my comfort zone. I enjoy the structure recreating a historical setting gives to my stories. Building a framework in a contemporary setting is vastly different from when you’re writing a historical, but one thing does not change: no matter what time you’re writing about, it is the characters who carry the story. Will Jason and Helle be able to carry their story all the way through? Well, IMO they most certainly do. I hope my readers will think so as well! 

About Anna

Had Anna Belfrage been allowed to choose, she’d have become a professional time-traveller. As such a profession does not exist, she became a financial professional with two absorbing interests, namely history and writing. 

Anna has authored the award-winning series The King’s Greatest Enemy, a series set in the 1320s featuring Adam de Guirande, his wife Kit, and their adventures and misfortunes in connection with Roger Mortimer’s rise to power.

When Anna is not stuck in the 14th century, she's probably visiting in the 17th century, specifically with Alex(andra) and Matthew Graham, the protagonists of the acclaimed The Graham Saga. This is the story of two people who should never have met – not when she was born three centuries after him.

At present, Anna is working on the third instalment of the series featuring Jason and Helle – a mixture of time-slip, suspense and burning passion. A lot of burning passion…

Anna’s books have won multiple awards among which feature numerous Historical Novel Society’s Editor’ Choice, various medals with Readers’ Favorite and an IPPY Award. She has also contributed to several short-story collections.

Find out more about Anna on her website, Amazon, on FB or follow her on Twitter. Or pop by her blog and submerge yourself in historical posts about everything from golden camels to abducted nuns. 

For the Love of a Good Ghost Story by Terry Lynn Thomas

When the leaves start to turn and there’s a crispness in the air, I reach for a good ghost story. What better way to spend the cool evening than snuggled on the couch with a tale of  haunted houses, a damsel in distress, or a woe begotten lover. This love of ghost stories coupled with a passion for the Gothic novels of the mid-twentieth century inspired me to write the Sarah Bennett Mysteries, modern gothics sent in California during World War II. The first book in the series, The Spirit of Grace takes place exactly one year after Sarah’s mother fell to her death at Bennett House, Sarah’s ancestral home. Sarah is a strange you woman who has a history of mental illness. She hears things and sees things, and the family doctor is convinced – and has convinced her family – Sarah is unstable. Given her family’s position in the small northern California beachside town, Sarah has spent her life sequestered and very much alone. She wasn’t allowed to attend school, instead her family hired a live-in governess and took other steps to ensure that Sarah never associated with children her own age. The three books in the series, The Spirit of Grace, The Family Secret, and The Drowned Woman let us see Sarah as she untangles hidden family secrets and learns to use her gifts to help others. 

When I wrote the first book, The Spirit of Grace, I purposefully focussed on Sarah’s isolation, her strange behaviour, the way she didn’t conform to societal norms, and the difficulties this nonconformity caused her. As the series unfolded, especially the first two books, I was amazed at the way the actual houses became characters. Although Bennett House and The Geisler Institute (fashioned after the Whittier mansion in San Francisco) didn’t actually grow and learn a lesson as characters are required to do in a story, there was no denying the houses played a crucial role in both books. As I wrote, it occurred to me that the houses which featured in all the fabulous Gothic novels that I loved represented the memories of past experiences. When we read about the orphaned governess taking a job in an isolated house on the moors, the isolated house is what sets the actual tone of the book. 

Bennett House, which was built by Sarah’s great grandfather when he settled in Bennett Cove (the fictitious California town fashioned after Stinson Beach), played a huge role as Sarah unravels the true facts surrounding her mother’s murder. Many residents of Bennett Cove think Sarah (Spooky Sarah as her neighbours call her) pushed her mother to her death. When Sarah returns to Bennett House after a year in an asylum, to clear her name and find out what really happened the night her mother died, the sense of the crime and the memory of Sarah’s mother lend an eerie sense of foreboding to the book.

In The Family Secret, Sarah takes a job at The Geisler Institute, a psychiatric hospital in San Francisco. The Geisler Institute is set in the Whittier Mansion in San Francisco, a stately home that is allegedly haunted. (Read about the Whittier Mansion here.) There’s nothing quite as spooky as a psychiatric hospital, especially when your boss has a secret interest in your childhood. Sarah’s time at The Geisler Institute pushes her to confront her true identity and forces her to figure out her place in the world. 

I’ve moved on at this point in my career and now write more traditional mysteries, but the Sarah Bennett books will always have a special place in my heart. I hope you enjoy reading these modern Gothics as much as I enjoyed writing them.  

Cheers,

Terry 

Q&A with Keita Nagano, The Sea of Japan

When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer? Or what first inspired you to write?

Like I mentioned, I got an award for my first novel at my junior high school. This was about a unique friendship between an underachieving teenager and a toddler with misfortune. In the following year, I received another award for the baseball drama. Having received awards for two years consecutively, my dream blew up and wanted to write more and professionally someday. I have continued writing since then.

What inspired your story?

I read a photo book about Japanese scenery. I saw the picture of firefly squids dive in Toyama bay. It is absolutely the most beautiful scene I have ever seen in my life. Mass of Firefly squids grow blue and dive to die, after they gave birth to new life. One can say that The Sea of Japan’s underlining story is life and death. If so, the beautiful mysterious billions of blue lights in the dark sea, on their final moment of the lives, is what inspired me most.

How does a new story idea come to you? Is it an event that sparks the plot or a character speaking to you?

Let me ask you this. What part of the story is the most important one for you? To me, the ending, is. Always. Thus, I always have a clear image of the ending. I write towards such ending. Yet, if I come up with a better alternative as I write, I do not hesitate.

Is there a message/theme in your novel that you want readers to grasp?

Buy on Amazon | Barnes and Noble

As the principle, “don’t tell, show it,” I would rather not to tell my message even though it has been here in my heart.

What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?

Every time I write book, I get surprised at how great novel is as a form of entertainment. Sure enough, we all love movies, it takes only two hours or so. But this entertainment, a book, either 5 hours or 10 hours, the enjoyment of the story gets amplified by the readers’ own sense of achievement. In any form of arts or entertainment, only books can convey this sense of joy. The readers truly put themselves in the shoes of the protagonists. It’s awesome!

What was your greatest challenge in writing this book?

Deep dive into the nuts and volts of the detail of the society I am writing. For example, when I write about fishery story, I really wanted to know their fishery methodology, how much they make, even how to date with women.

Who are some of your favorite authors?

I love Michael Connelly, not so much on Harry Bosh series, but The Lincoln Lawyer series. Also, I love Ernest Hemingway. I even transcribed “The old man and the sea,” every line. For my novel, I got often praised in my very simple writing style. One can find the influence from “The old man and the sea” easily. I went to pay respect to his Key West home and Idaho Ketchum grave yard. Lastly, I love “Love Story” by Erich Segal. The book was quoted in my novel. I also love all works of Yasunari Kawabata (a novel prized author, whose famous work is “Snow Country”).

What’s the best writing advice you have ever received?

If you start it, you finish it. The first draft seems the worst story you have ever read, but I can guarantee that the second one is better. By the seventh draft, you will feel good, and by the tenth, you feel your work is precious.

If your book was turned into a movie, who would you like to play the main characters?

Anna Kendrick for Lindsey. She is almost same age as Lindsey, and her mixture of defiance and inner smartness, and easy to be furious for unfairness is the right cast. More so, it is my dream that Clint Eastwood, my hero, plays Lindsey’s grandpa who is the best fisherman in America and sailed out to the Sea of Japan with Lindsey for his final fishing.

About the Author

Keita Nagano is an award-winning Japanese author who has lived almost equally in Nevada and Tokyo—more than twenty years in each place—and reflects the difference of the two cultures in his novels. He has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Keio University in Japan, as well as an MBA in global business and Ph.D. in management from Walden University in Minnesota. The pursuit of the authentic American experience is his hobby: he has been to all fifty states, all thirty major league ballparks, and the top sixty big cities in America. He has published seventeen business nonfiction and eight fiction books in Japan. In 2013, he received a Nikkei (Japanese Wall Street Journal) Award for Contemporary Novel for his missing-child thriller, Kamikakushi. He is also an official weekly columnist for Forbes Japan. Nagano lives in Henderson, Nevada, with his wife and Welsh corgi, and their teenage daughter is currently studying in Tennessee.

Q&A with Aven Ellis, The Modern Royal series

Are you an audiobook listener? What about the audiobook format appeals to you?

Yes, I’m always listening to a book-when I’m in my car, and right before bed. I love the audiobook format because it allows me to read at times when I can’t. As a writer, when I’m done writing for the day, my eyes need a break. Audiobooks fill that need nicely!

How did you select your narrator?

The Modern Royals Series is produced by Tantor, and they gave me a couple of narrators to choose from. But I requested Andrea because I heard a clip of her British accent and I knew she was perfect to carry the series forward! Her accent is so good I had a British friend ask if she was British! There’s no greater compliment than that!

Were there any real life inspirations behind your writing?

I have been fascinated with the British royal family since I was a tween. People always come to me to talk royals and finally another author said, “Why aren’t you writing a royal series? You would be perfect for that.” So I thought about it and decided I wanted to create an alternate reality British royal family. I use the real palaces and traditions in the books, and it’s been a tremendous research project to get those details right, but I absolutely love telling royal stories.

What gets you out of a writing slump? What about a reading slump?

If I get to a sticking point with my writing, I bounce ideas off my critique partners and beta team until the story is back in the right direction. For a reading slump-I’m lucky, I’ve never had one.

What do you say to those who view listening to audiobooks as “cheating” or as inferior to “real reading”?

If you are consuming a story, if you are enjoying escaping to another world, to me that’s all that matters. Personally, if you are listening to a one of my audiobooks you are consuming my story and that’s all that matters.

What’s next for you?

I’ll be releasing the third book in my Rinkside in the Rockies series-Outscored. That is a romantic comedy and yes, it will be in audio, too.

The Romance of Failure by Chris Saper

What is the best thing about writing? To me, it’s the same as the worst thing: riding the whiplash between peril and promise. I think that’s a fairly universal experience for people whose careers – and vocations- lie in the arts, whether fine art, literary art, or performing art. And with the exception of performing arts, our worlds can remain as private as we choose, until such time we decide to share them with a potentially hostile audience. We can fail countless times, but we also have countless opportunities to pick ourselves up and keep at it until we get it almost right. Not right, as in 100% perfect right, just the best it can be at that moment. And in the process, I think that those of us who make public our good, almost right, work, have learned to respect and embrace our natures, and temperaments. For me, that lesson’s been a path to freedom. I’ve tried it the other way – and that is a certain road to frustration.

Let me give you an example. I’ve been commissioned portrait painter for almost thirty years. Several years ago, I gave the keynote address to a large gathering of artists and opened my PowerPoint with a moody black and white photo of Michael Jordan with just one word of text: FAILURE. I then recounted seeing an old Nike ad, also in black and white: Michael Jordan dribbling a basketball in an empty gym, as the only soundtrack. The text over went something like this: Michael Jordan has missed over 9,000 shots and 300 games. He was trusted to take the winning shot and missed 26 times. His words: “I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

That is a confidence that is generally hard earned over many years. Trusting your own process. “I’m smarter than this stupid canvas!” “This chapter is the worst piece of crap ever written and I will delete you!” So, yep, freedom. 

I roll my eyes when I see writing quotes like “I was born to write.” “Without writing, I could not breathe.” Frankly I think that for the overwhelming, and I mean the overwhelming majority of writers, that’s just a bunch of nonsense. Nothing replaces good training and just doing the work. And a lot of it. Talent? Overrated. Do I think we need some? Sure, some. But it most surely isn’t the most important factor in success. Emil Zola said this: “The artist is nothing without the gift. But the gift is nothing without the work.” I can promise you that I have been a more successful artist than scores of other painters with way more ability-but the difference has been that I have been willing to fail. Over and over again.

Fast forward to the morning that I am writing this essay. For all the bluster and self-help tropes I can blather on about, I fight a crippling insecurity – my first novel is on the eve of being launched. I’m terrified that no one will like it. That I will wake up next week to find nothing but one-star reviews, written by people who only gave it one star because there wasn’t a negative star rating option. Or even worse, that no one even bothered to write even a horrible review because they didn’t care. Could this happen? Sure. But my adventure into fiction isn’t so much about someone else’s opinion. I loved starting with a blank Word document – with nothing. And making something. Maybe Collateral Carnage will languish in obscurity. But I did the best I could and I am happy with that.  And in any case, I can’t worry about what is now published, because I need to get started on the next book. And open up another beautiful, liberating, totally blank Word document. And maybe make the next book even better, because I understand the peril. It is limited and finite and it doesn’t frighten me. And because of that, only promise remains.

Connect with Chris: www.chrissaperauthor.com

Check out her book, Collateral Carnage on Amazon