The Beauty of a Good Documentary

When I was in high school, um...once upon a time, my senior class was forced to sit through Ken Burns' take on the Civil War during our history class. I say forced, because I think a majority of the students sat through that documentary with a glassy stare, hardly any of them processing anything from the many episodes we sat through.

Except for one student!

And, yes, that was me. Every day I waited in anticipation for our teacher to fire up that VHS tape in order to watch that day's installment of the nine episode documentary. When I voiced how much I loved watching The Civil War, my friends stared at me as if I was a deranged monkey with two heads. None of them understood why I didn't use the hour to get in a good nap.

Thinking back now, I can name two things that highly influenced my love of history and eventually instilling in me the need to write historical fiction. One was Ken Burns' documentary and the other was John Jakes with his North and South series. Needless to say, I fell in love with the Civil War and every battle that was fought, every soldier that went off to the front, and every wife, mother, father, child who waited to read that day's deaths in the newspaper to see if his/her loved one was one of the many who perished. I believe a good documentary can do that to a writer, especially a writer of historical fiction. With documentaries aplenty I'm never at a loss for material. And I'll tell you straight up that Ken Burns is probably my favorite to watch, whether it be learning about The National Parks: America's Best Idea or learning a thing or two from Prohibition (which is one of my favorite eras and topics).

But, of course, I do indulge in other types of documentaries. I'm a sucker for a good National Geographic or History Channel presentation. Most recently I watched Serving Life, an OWN presentation about inmates serving life sentences in a Louisiana penitentiary. It deals with the hospice care of men who basically die in prison from old age and terminal illnesses since they have no chance of ever being paroled. Even though these men are hardened criminals, it's heartwrenching to watch the final stages of their lives and the volunteer inmates who take care of them. Then there's Wild Horse Wild Ride, a documentary about captured wild mustangs that are then given to 100 individuals who have 100 days to break and train the horses, which then compete and are put up for auction to good homes. Amazing how some of the individuals know how to work with wild mustangs! This documentary brings out that compassionate level of connection humans can have with animals. I even find material in older pseudo-documentaries, like On the Bowery, an early time in this genre of filmmaking when the idea of filming real life was just forming. In this film, post-WWII veterans find solace in cheap rent and even cheaper drinks, but not much of a future. Through watching this documentary, I learned the rudimentary science of making Squeeze, a very toxic drink made from Sterno, something I was able to use in one of my novels. (But, shhh, don't tell anyone because then the secret will be out!)

Since I tend to be more of a visual learner, I strongly believe there are many things a writer can learn by watching a good documentary:

• A sense of time:  I know for me that when I sit through the stories that create a time period I begin to feel a connection. Since time machines don't exist, our best way to explore the past is through the eyes of those who have either been there and experienced such horrendous events as the D-Day invasion or the disappearance of the Lindbergh baby, or we listen to those who have taken extensive time to study the lives of historical figures like John Muir and Abraham Lincoln. When we are able to connect with the past and marvel at how Edison was so patient when it came to producing the lightbulb or how sickening places like Auschwitz were allowed in the first place, then we begin to tap into that human well of feelings inside all of us. And viewing the world through a different time period can strangely put things into perspective as to how we got to where we are today.

John Muir (1838-1914)
One of the earliest advocates
of the national park idea.

• A sense of place:  While I watched The National Parks: America's Best Idea, I couldn't help but think how badly I wanted to visit some of those places like Yosemite and Mesa Verde if only to walk in the footsteps and beauty that others have already experienced. I wanted to take that raft trip down the Colorado and look up at the cathedral walls of the Grand Canyon. The same goes for the BBC's Auschwitz: The Nazis and 'The Final Solution' documentary. Walking with the cameraman through the gates of such an infamous concentration camp is both eerie and chilling, especially when you learn how things really worked in this camp of unimaginable horrors. Everything from the disease-infested barracks to the ovens to the actual photos showing the long lines -- one going to the barracks, the other directly to the gas chambers  -- brings to life the terror in this part of history.

Entrance to Auschwitz
Notice it's by train only, meaning once
a prisoner arrived, he/she never left.

• A sense of characters:  Not so long ago I finished up Ken Burns' documentary The War, which details World War II through the eyes of men and women from four different towns in America. There were many times I found I just wanted to have a good cry. Most of The War is told through survivors and veterans' memories of what they faced. Every survivor is fascinating to listen to, but two stories that follow the course of most of The War really struck me:  that of a color blinded pilot named Quentin Aanenson form Luverne, Minnesota and that of Glenn Frazier of Mobile, Alabama, who endured the Bataan Death March and subsequent years in prisoner of war camps. Every tale told is filled with a wealth of understanding and character building for any writer. But that's what makes documentaries of any sort so fascinating and helpful -- there's so much to glean by just listening to history and seeing it through the eyes of those who've experienced it.

Katharine Phillips with her younger brother Sidney,
who enlisted in the Marines at the age of 17 in 1941.

In all, as a writer of historical fiction, I highly encourage watching a few good documentaries. If you're struggling to mold a character, if you can't quite seem to imagine the setting you're wanting to use, or if you fail to make a connection with the time period, then, by all means, grab a good documentary on the subject!

Do you enjoy documentaries? Are there any that you would recommend?

The Treasure Box of History

They say that truth is stranger than fiction. I’m here to testify to this. A lot of ideas for my novels come from real life. And this includes plots and characters. Not only do I recycle information that my family and friends (or even strangers) share with me, but I also look for inspiration in history. In fact, I sometimes wonder if I’m cheating. (And if everyone else can see it!)

The beauty of writing historical fiction, in my opinion, is that you don’t always have to think of a plot. History is there to guide you. It is amazing how a story can be built from one climactic moment from the past!

For my second novel, The Black Letter, I knew I wanted to write something that took place in the Galapagos Islands. You’re probably wondering why (or maybe not, but I’m going to tell you anyway!) I was born and raised in Ecuador. Us Ecuadorians take great pride in what we call the Enchanted Islands. I mean, this is the place where Darwin came up with his Theory of Evolution and the whole Survival of the Fittest idea was born! This is a place that attracts millions of visitors from all over the world and the scrutiny of scientists for its unique flora and fauna. Yet, how much is really known about its human history? About its supposed “curse”?

Yes, you read right: curse.

See, the Galapagos were initially ignored by the Spaniards in lieu of the vast and fruitful American continent. It actually made sense. Why would they bother with these volcanic islands that sometimes disappeared from view due to their endless fog—which earned them the name of “enchanted”—when there was so much land to exploit? After all, they weren’t sure these islands were real, and those who had visited them attested that they were filled with strange creatures and not enough sources of water. Only the pirates considered them useful spots to bury their treasures.

Fortunately, this poor perception of the islands started to change after Darwin pointed out their uniqueness and the continent became more populated. The Ecuadorian government finally claimed them in the early 19th century and sent adventurers and prostitutes to populate them. Many entrepreneurs saw an opportunity for profit, but invariably, those who tried to take advantage of its resources perished. People started calling it "the curse of the turtle" due to the near-extinction of this species. This so-called curse took place for about a century—until people learned to respect and preserve the Galapagos animals.

Among the legends and mysteries I devoured in books, chronicles and web pages, I came across two interesting facts: a) there had been a tyrant who ruled San Cristobal Island for about 30 years and created a sugar cane empire with the labor of convicts sent to the islands to serve their sentences, and b) an extremely religious Ecuadorian President—both hated and beloved—had done a cleansing of sorts by sending said "undesirables" to the islands.

I knew then that my protagonist would be among the exiled prostitutes and that she would have to meet the island’s tyrannical ruler.

How easy was that. An idea, an entire plot, was born from research. I started thinking about my protagonist—about who she was and the reasons for her exile. Maybe she wasn’t a prostitute after all. Maybe she was an affluent woman, a teenager mistaken for a prostitute. She could be running away from her family, from a marriage. Eloping. Maybe she was pregnant. It was amazing how, in just a few hours, the entire novel took shape.

What a contrast with my first novel which had taken years to plan, write and rewrite.

But that was just the beginning—the skeleton of my book. A novel is not just plot design, the challenge of historical fiction is in the details. My research took a variety of forms. I read memoirs and chronicles of earlier settlers, history books about Galapagos’ most notorious visitors and its most important events. I also read about the islands’ flora and fauna and Darwin’s visit. Since my story also takes place in two other cities: my hometown Quito (the capital) and Guayaquil (the largest port in the country), I visited both and noted the smells, the quality of the air, the architecture, the people around me. (I had already visited the Galapagos three times during my teenage and college years.) And then there were other vital details every historical novelist must face: fashion, transportation, language. Not only did I have to think of how a person in the late 19th century would think, but also, how they took care of their hygiene, what they did for leisure, what they ate and what tools they used for cooking, among other things. Perhaps the hardest thing was to learn about 19th century ships—since a big chunk of my story takes place in one. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to visit a ship during my trip to Guayaquil. Other tourists must have thought I was crazy when I was taking pictures of the floor and the kitchen!

At first glance this may look like an ordinary box, but it's actually a passage to the ship's hold
and a very handy hiding spot for my heroine.

 The church where the first scene of my novel takes place
(La Iglesia de La Compañía, Quito.)

But back to the treasure box. Just this summer, after I handed over my third novel to my beta readers (a contemporary one, for a change), I found myself in a restless state. I didn’t want to sit around and wait for their feedback or for news from my agent regarding The Black Letter. I wanted to write again. I started my restless search for ideas, and I looked at the history of my country one more time. This time, it took me to another little-known, but fascinating fact about Ecuador. It took me to the world of chocolate, of cacao plantations and of women inventors.

And it’s starting to take shape.

Who wouldn't find inspiration from a place like this?

What do you use as inspiration for your own writing? What drives you to write historical fiction and how do you go about doing it? Do you think we're “cheating” by using history as our guideline? 

Cephalopod Coffeehouse: Hollywood by Gore Vidal

Okay, so I'm throwing my hat in the ring for the Cephalopod Coffeehouse Book Club with my review of Gore Vidal's historical novel Hollywood. And boy, did I pick a doozy!

You see, I have this thing for historical novels, a real love for the way an author can weave history into a fascinating tale, using names and places from so long ago. Unfortunately for any poor soul wishing to read this "novel" way too many names of people you probably haven't even heard of get thrown into the mix. In the end, this "novel" reads like nothing more than a history book that I would've been forced to read in high school.

Oh, where to start! I guess I'll start with how many names get dropped throughout the novel, most of them occurring within the first hundred pages. Sure, there are names that are easily recognizable, like Woodrow Wilson, W.G. Harding, the Roosevelts, and so on. But then there are many many other obscure names muddying the storytelling. To be quite honest, I wasn't sure who to follow, who held the most importance in this wordy storyline. I'm going to say three people pop out because they are followed the closest when it comes to POV: Jess, Caroline, and Burden.

Next up is the fact that the book is called Hollywood, but it takes over a hundred pages to even get to Hollywood. Vidal spends more time mucking through the halls of Congress and the White House than he ever spends on the vivid transformation taking place on the West Coast. More than anything, I found this to be completely frustrating. I picked out the book because the main focus described would be Hollywood and those early golden years when everything in the film business was beginning to take shape. Instead of a larger view of what was taking place out in California, Vidal focuses on Caroline's character, how she gets roped into making "photo-plays", and then we're right back in Washington D.C. listening to the banal history concerning Wilson and WWI. If you have no interest in Wilson's WWI policies or all the names getting dropped for the 1920 presidential election, then I suggest you find your historical novel fix elsewhere.

Vidal's writing just gets tedious. I'd always wanted to read one of his novels, but now I feel like I'm kicking myself over having chosen this book. History is important, but when a storyteller can't create a story beyond historical facts then he's only going to lose his audience. In the end, this is how I felt every time I picked up to read  Hollywood:

Yep, it was that boring!

Make sure to check out other reviewers takes on their chosen books this week!

Detectives from the past: The Charm of Historical Mysteries

Recently, my incessant quest for historical novels has led me to a delightful discovery: the Historical Whodunit. It´s not surprising than in a decade when mysteries and thrillers pack the bestsellers lists; the past provides an apt landscape for gumshoes from yesteryear.

For the last five years, I have been doing weekly checks on the New York Times Bestseller lists, (Fiction).  Thrillers and detective stories take more than half of its content. Apparently those are the genres Americans favor. Not only Americans, as the worldwide craze for Stieg Larsson’s novels proves.  Writing about crimes, past and present, has become a lucrative business thus the historical detective story is bound to be welcomed.  Even well established masters of the craft like Baroness James (better known as P.D James) are giving it a successful try. Her latest endeavor Death Comes to Pemberley has made it to the NYTBL.

As any Jane Austen fan would guess, this novel entails mayhem in the midst of the Darcy Family of Pride and Prejudice fame. Elizabeth Darcy (nee Bennett) has her Autumn Ball shattered when her brother in-law, dastardly Wickham, is murdered.  One of the major appeals of the historical detective story lies in it having historical figures, as well as famous fictional characters, in charge of the investigation. In fact, this is the second historical mystery inspired by Pride and Prejudice. Last year, Regina Jeffrey brought out The Phantom of Pemberley.

I cannot tell the “why” behind worldwide obsession with crime fiction, but I can approximate several reasons why the historical brand is doing rather well.  For long, thrillers and mysteries were genres mostly appreciated by men. Due to the rise of woman sleuths and subgenres like cozy mysteries, ladies have become addicts as well as writers of both present and past detective fiction.

Historical mysteries also provide escape from reality. There is no need to identify with characters or their problems. Such stories are made to feel out of the ordinary and to give us a chance to flee away from everyday conflicts. So the combination of both genres creates a fascinating mixture. For historical fiction lovers, a murder thrown in the plot just makes the dish more palatable. For thriller lovers, the period atmosphere adds up to the story’s exoticism.

There are discrepancies about who started this subgenre. Many claim that it was Georgette Heyer, mother of Regency Novels, who wrote the first actual historical whodunit in 1936. Called The Talisman Ring the plot takes place in Georgian England and it involves the dispute over a valued heirloom. With the publication of this combination of mystery and historical novel, Heyer set a path for suspense writers to imitate her. In 1944, Agatha Christie placed the mystery of her Death Comes as the End in Ancient Egypt and in 1950, John Dickson Carr followed suit with The Bride of Newgate, a suspense tale set in Napoleonic England.

Common factors linked historical whodunits with Gothic Romances. Daphne Du Maurier’s Jamaica Inn (1936) set in 1820 Cornwall is a historical suspense, making it a forerunner of the subgenre. Many have seen Dame Daphne’s work as an attempt to recover the Gothic Victorian style, but few have noticed her debt to Willkie Collins, one of the fathers of the detective story. However, Du Maurier is considered a revivalist of the Gothic style. Her followers which include well known Sixties and Seventies authors such as Mary Stewart, Dorothy Eden and Victoria Holt were identified as Gothic Romance or Romantic Suspense writers.

Such labels were not applied to Robert van Gulick’s work. In the 30’s, at a Tokyo bookstore, this Dutch diplomat  came across  a Seventh Century  Chinese detective story featuring a certain  statesman and criminologist named Di Renjie. During World War II, van Gulik translated into English that novel. It appeared in 1949 under the title of The Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee. By 1959, Gulik was writing his own detective stories celebrating the deeds of the sleuthing magistrate. This was the beginning of an acclaimed series (Gulik also drafted a series of comics based on Judge Dee) that lasted until the author´s death in 1967.

The person who managed to dislodge the historical whodunit from its Gothic Romance or Period Drama labels was Edith Mary Pargeter. Under her real name she had been writing historical fiction since the Sixties, but her literary career dated back to the Thirties and crime fiction was her specialty. Following an unwritten law, Miss Pargeter penned her novels under masculine pseudonyms such as Jolyon Carr, John Redfern and Ellis Peter.

 It was under this last pen name that she would create her most famous detective: Brother Cadfael, protagonist of The Cadfael Chronicles that began in 1977 with A Morbid Taste for Bones. The novel took place in Shropshire in the Twelfth Century during a turbulent period of British history. Cadfael was a monk with a taste for sleuthing, aided by his immense knowledge of sciences and herbal lore learned from the Moslems during his crusader´s stage. These hugely popular series encompassed twenty one novels written between 1977 and the early Nineties.

Cadfael has since then inspired the creation of a flock of inquisitive medieval members of the clergy. There is Brother Athelstan, Sister Fidelma, Sister Frevesse and now we have Nancy Bylieau’s Joanna Cross, a Dominican nun living in the days of Henry VIII. But detectives of yesteryear do not necessarily have to be members of the Church.

In 1979, Juliet Humes under the pseudonym “Anne Perry” would publish her first historical mystery, The Cater Street Hangman featuring Victorian policeman Thomas Pitt.  Perry, whose own life would be the subject of Kate Winslet’s film “Heavenly Creatures,” legitimized the subgenre and inspired several other writers to deal with detectives from the past. She has continued writing into the current century, and Dorchester Terrace, her latest Thomas Pitt novel, is due to appear in 2012.

More respectability was granted to historical mysteries in 1980 with the publication of The Name of the Rose; Umberto Eco´s acclaimed novel dealing with gruesome homicides at an Italian medieval monastery. There have been other attempts to turn historical mysteries into high literature. Patrick Susskind’s The Perfume comes to mind.

In the Twenty-First Century, ancient murderers and law enforcers are alive and kicking in books from all over the world. Famed Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk has given a try to the matter with his My Name is Red (2000) a crime novel set in XVI century Istanbul, and Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s bestsellers could be considered historical mysteries.

On the other hand of the spectrum, stand Anthony Horowitz and Laurie R. King and their insistence in reinventing Sherlock Holmes’s adventures. In the market you may find Regency, Victorian and Edwardian cozies, Medieval and Elizabethan whodunits, and detectives wearing togas or kimonos. There is a wealth of female amateur private eyes of all ages from spinsterish archaeologist Amelia Peabody investigating murders in the 1920’s to 11-year-old Flavia de Luce sleuthing in the England of the Fifties.

If this winter you run out of reading material, reach out and become acquainted with the historical whodunit. But if you are already hooked in the subgenre, tell us who is your favorite author and why do you do you think historical mysteries have so many readers. Would you care to write a historical mystery? Which era would you select?

In Love with the Past: The Challenges of Historical Fiction

Judging by the list of Emmy nominations, Americans appear to be in love with the past. 2011   has been a ripe season for popular shows exuding nostalgia for the not-so-perfect Twentieth Century. The recent past is also the favorite setting of present bestselling historical fiction. Why is historical fiction  (and drama) still alive and well when is much more difficult to read  and to create than other genres?

Historical fiction is an umbrella term that shelters several subgenres such as historical mysteries, historical romances (what in my day were known as bodice-rippers), inspirational period pieces, and nostalgia yarns. It even encompasses the fantastic, whether it´s alternative history, historical fantasy, steampunk, time travel stories a la Outlander or paranormal romances. The genre’s possibilities are eternal.

True historical fiction applies to novels dealing with actual historical facts and real people as dramatic personae. Examples of historical fiction are Philippa Gregory’s The Other Boleyn Girl, Robert Graves’ I Claudius, and, in terms of current television shows, Emmy winning nominee Boardwalk Empire that deals with a historical person, Enoch “Nucky” Thompson (Steve Buscemi) and his part in the politics and rise of organized crime in Atlantic City.

Then there are those novels set in specific epochs, but telling the adventures of fictional characters such as the New York Times Bestsellers Rules of Civility and Sarah Gruen´s Water for Elephants both set in the Depression Era. Another series in the Emmy list is Downton Abbey, which takes place in the years preceding World War I, and it could be described as a period piece, or as it is known in film’s lingo, a “customer.”

Finally there is nostalgia or vintage, evocations of a recent past, one that is familiar to the reader or to his parents’ generation. The Fifties, Sixties and Seventies are the fashionable vintage area to explore, attested by the success of series like Mad Men and novels like Kathryn Socket´s The Help that takes place in the South, at the onset of The Civil Rights Movement.

Since the past is a rich field for harvesting fiction, it surprised me that thrillers and fantasy have eclipsed historical novels at the New York Time Bestsellers lists.  Taking into consideration that such lists are poor barometers to measure the genre´s popularity, I preferred to check Amazon and Barnes & Nobles’ category lists. 

Going over the top twentieth most popular items in historical fiction, I expected to find historical romance galore and plenty of medieval sagas a la Ken Follet. Surprisingly, the only material of that sort was precisely Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth, which still enjoys an enviable enduring popularity.

The Middle-Ages might not be the favorite time period for contemporary novelists, but Twentieth Century is. More than half of those top sellers took place in a recent past and some dealt with the Second World War. About six years, ago when I began my first novel, I was strongly advised not to tackle that era. Expert  voices at sites dispensing advice to novice writers told me that writing about 30’s, 40’s, and particularly about the global conflict that took place in those days, was ill-advised and “unfashionable.”

Now, the three titles within the New York Times List are set in those despised decades. There is The Paris Wife (Paris in the 20’s), Civility Rules (1938 New York), and War and Honor which is an actual World War II novel. Other war novels doing well in category lists are Tatiana de Rosay’s Holocaust fable Sarah’s Key and Amazon Bestseller War Brides. I wonder what changed. Why is it trendy now to write about the first half of the Twentieth Century? Why is recent history much more fascinating than ancient eras? 

As a history buff I would like to see more historical fiction in display, but I can understand why not many would care to tackle the genre. Writing historical fiction demands careful but time-consuming research. Not only do authors have to learn dates, statistics, and proper names, they also have to delve with the daily life their character might experience. What they ate? What did they wear? Most novelists in the field become amateur social historians, and so do their readers. One of the critiques befalling historical novels is that they end up being “disguised textbooks.”

Often, I meet people who shun period pieces with excuses such as “I know so little about that period, I can’t follow the plot” or “I get confused with all the historical details.” Others, like yours truly, thrive in learning historical facts through an entertainment medium. In fact, one of the few reasons why I would throw away a book might be its historical inaccuracy.

Much more difficult that the research process is trying to create characters living in a time alien to us. How did they think? What moved them? What were their values and concerns? And that is where historical fiction and drama tend to fail. Most serious historical fiction authors will run into two ominous characters: Mr. Political Correctness and Madame Modern Sensibility. On encountering them, the author is forced to make a choice on how to portray the past and its inhabitants.

There are three unofficial schools that guide the historical fiction novelist in this quandary. One advises to depict yesteryear as much worse than today, an emphasis on our ancestors’ barbaric ways and primitive mentalities as if to make the reader think he is fortunate to lie in such progressive times like the third Millennium. Then there is nostalgic fondness: to describe days gone by as in Don Quixote’s Golden Age monologue, a lost magical world when everything was better and nicer than today. Finally, is the easiest and most common approach: show the past as a mirror of the present. People have always thought and acted as we do, they just dressed differently and were much more backwards (technologically speaking) than us.

As only a witness could testify of how a historical period really was, all three approaches are legitimate. That doesn’t stop us purists from clenching our teeth when reading hidden current agendas behind a harmless historical tale or glancing through stories that are so anachronistic in language and mentality that characters appear to be attending a costume party.

I have to say that I love research and find tremendous pleasure in reconstructing lost worlds, but is that reason enough to write a historical novel? So I ask those who dare to evoke the past in writing. Why do you do it? What made you select a particular period for your tale’s setting? What is the biggest challenge in writing historical fiction?

Interview with an Author: Rosslyn Elliott

Have you ever wondered what it's like to have an agent or to be signed by a major publisher? We have author Rosslyn Elliott here today to answer these and other questions!

Rosslyn has recently signed a three-book deal with Thomas Nelson and her first book, Fairer than Morning, will be published in April 2011.


Rosslyn, welcome to the Divine Secrets of the Writing Sisterhood!

1. Could you tell our readers what your novel is about?

Fairer than Morning tells the story of a saddler’s daughter who dreams of marriage to her poetic, educated suitor—until a runaway apprentice shows her that a truly noble man will risk his life to free the oppressed.

My novel is an adventurous, inspirational love story based on the Hanby family who lived in Ohio and worked to free slaves before the Civil War.

2. I know that you recently visited the site where your novel takes place and even the house where one of your characters lived. Could you tell us what that experience was like?

I was really moved by my visit to Westerville, Ohio this September. I lived in Westerville from 2002 to 2006, and my initial visit to the Hanby House museum in 2006 inspired me to write this trilogy.

Before this visit, I had not returned to Westerville in the four years since my family’s relocation to the southwest, and so going back at last was a momentous occasion for me.

Two things really hit home. The first was the gratitude I feel to all those who have preserved the Hanby legacy over the years. Our local history in America stays alive primarily because of the efforts of thousands of volunteers across the country. Were it not for historical societies, many of our historic homes would be long gone. Pam Allen is the director of the Hanby House now, and I’m sure she knows more about the Hanby family than anyone else alive. Bill and Harriet Merriman run the Westerville Historical Society. These leaders and their volunteers are saving our past from oblivion, and I see my mission as a joint effort with theirs. Amateur historians save our physical artifacts and historical records, while novelists breathe life into the stories of our ancestors.

The other major event of my visit was seeing the graves of the real people who appear in my novels. Most of the Hanby family is buried in the Otterbein College cemetery. I’ve lived with this family for four years now, thinking about them and getting inside their heads in order to portray them. My visit to their graves was almost like seeing the resting places of old friends or great-grandparents.

3. How did you find your agent and how long did it take you to find her?

A national writer’s organization (ACFW) sent out word on its email loop that Rachelle Gardner was seeking quality historical romance. I had just finished my first novel, and I sent a query letter to her. She was exactly the kind of agent I thought would be a good match for me. She was able to see past the very rough edges of that novel and detect long-term potential, so she signed me as her client. That first novel garnered some interest, but in the end, it wasn’t contracted. As it made the rounds (a process which takes months in the publishing industry), I was writing my second novel, which would eventually be titled Fairer than Morning. I knew it was much better than my first, and that if I had a chance to be published, this was probably it. This was the best I could do. So I was immensely relieved and delighted when Thomas Nelson offered me a three-book deal beginning with Fairer than Morning.

4. What can writers expect from an agent/writer relationship? How often do you communicate with her?

My communications with Rachelle vary widely depending on what’s going on in the publishing cycle. Right now, for example, my edits are finished and we are waiting for the first book to be typeset. There’s really no reason to communicate with my agent—I just need to keep working on my second novel for the series, which is due in January. The last time we emailed and spoke by phone was about my novel’s cover. When the design came out from the publisher’s art staff, I consulted her to see what she thought. Fortunately, we both thought it was a lovely design that would attract readers.

Different agents have different strengths. Rachelle and her agency, Wordserve Literary, are known to be strong editorially. Rachelle was formerly a top-level freelance fiction editor, so she really knows what she’s doing with narrative. Other agents may have legal backgrounds, or marketing backgrounds. Of course, an agent should be competent in all areas, as Rachelle is, but I think several of her clients would give her credit for helping them get contracts as a result of her excellent editorial advice. In my case, she didn’t give a lot of editorial feedback because the story of my novel naturally lent itself to a strong plot and theme. But I certainly will consider her editorial opinion should she offer one in the future!

5. Once you sign a contract with the publisher, what is expected of you? How often do you communicate with your editor? Is it necessary to meet in person?

Communication with my editor is also on an as-needed basis. This usually means I will exchange emails with my editor an average of once a month. But when we do contact one another, it often is a four-or-five-email conversation, as novels are complex and discussion takes time. We’ve also spoken by phone a few times. I met her in person at a conference recently. I highly, highly recommend that an author meet her editor in person as soon as possible after signing a contract. My dinner with my editor and the Thomas Nelson publishing family was a valuable time to get to know one another and establish fellowship and trust. My editor is wonderful, and I’m not at all surprised that she was the ACFW 2009 Editor of the Year.

6. Writers often wonder what will happen to the title of their novels once a publisher buys them. Can you share with us your experience with your book title?

My debut novel’s working title was The Saddler’s Daughter when it was contracted by Thomas Nelson. I wasn’t wild about that title, but it was the most obvious choice for a novel in this genre. My editor asked me to come up with some new titles for the books in the series. She suggested that they sound like scriptural poetry, given that my writing has lyrical tendencies. I was really excited by this suggestion, and I invented six sets of titles by looking in old hymnbooks for ideas. My editor and my agent each picked the set that included Fairer than Morning, so I had confidence we had found the right titles.

7. Do you have any input on what the book cover will look like?

I gave them a one-page description of several of the main characters, plus some important objects and scenes (sidesaddles, pistols, etc). Other than that, I left it up to them. However, I know other authors who have suggested very specific scenes for their titles and had their suggestions accepted. That can depend on the publisher and their way of operating. But most authors have only a little input on their covers.

8. How has your life changed since you were signed? Or has it not?

Not too much. I suppose I receive a little more understanding from casual friends, now that I have a contract. They realize that a published writer needs to spend time writing, and so I don’t get funny looks if I say I can’t do something because I’m on deadline. But I had to take myself seriously as a writer before I had a contract in order to work hard enough to get that contract. So I encourage all pre-published writers out there not to be discouraged by those who don’t take your writing seriously. You have to treat it as a real job if you want it to become a real job. :)

9. Are there any tips you can give other writers on how to become published?

First, study the craft and write good fiction. I was signed by an agent in mid-2008, but I didn’t get a contract until eighteen months later, after I had written the best novel I was capable of writing.

I also recommend looking for agents who are just entering the business, as long as they are well-qualified. One good move is signing with a new agent at an established agency. They will be hungry for good work and not overloaded with clients.

10. Do you think Inspirational Fiction is a promising market (more so than the secular market)?

I think inspirational fiction is flourishing, but I also have a friend who just signed a contract for middle-grade fiction in the secular market. So it all depends on the quality and marketability of an individual writer’s work. The inspirational market is smaller, which means it’s easier for a new author to make connections, but also that there are fewer ‘slots’ for debut authors. Also, my genre is hot right now in the inspirational market. For those trying to publish inspirational sci-fi or fantasy, the going is much tougher. Even contemporary romance is less popular than historical romance in the inspirational market. But as any publishing insider will tell you, these genres cycle in and out, and what’s hot today may be out tomorrow, whether you’re in the inspirational or the secular market.

11. Have you ever considered writing for the secular market?

Not yet. Because I love historicals, and because I’ve been Christian for ten years (though I spent my young adulthood as an agnostic), the inspirational market was a natural fit for me. I knew that clean, thoughtful historical romance would be an easier sell in the inspirational marketplace. I don’t preach to readers, but my historical characters were sincere Christians and that informs the way I characterize them in my novel. That worldview plus the fact that I do not have any interest in writing explicit sex scenes would make my work uninteresting to some types of secular publishers. The fact is, inspirational publishing exists not because Christian authors want to segregate their books onto a different shelf, but because so many mainstream publishers won’t publish novels featuring a positive Christian protagonist who thinks about faith in her everyday life.

Someday, I might like to write some crossover historical novels for a wider audience, but right now I have my hands full with a looming deadline and parenting! :) Thanks so much for having me on your blog.

Thank you, Rosslyn, and best of luck with your new book!

Rosslyn Elliott

For more information about Rosslyn, please visit her website: www.rosslynelliott.com

(Don't forget to stop by her popular blog: www.inkhornblue.blogspot.com)

Don't Get Bogged Down: Keeping on Course When It Comes to Historical Research

Too much research?

I've always had this fascination with history. I kid you not when I tell you this, but when I was in junior high school I was adamant about naming my firstborn child Cholera (only pronounced differently, which gave it a musical lyricism) because of the copious amounts of Oregon Trail I played on the computer (there are a couple of you out there who know what I'm talking about ☺). Of course, now, I never would name my child such a thing, but from an early age I was hopelessly stuck in an alternate past filled with Southern belles, gorgeous plantation homes, and handsome army men with their shiny brass buttons. It didn't help matters much that I became obsessed with John Jakes' North and South mini-series that came out in the late eighties and early nineties. I guess it came as no surprise that, when many years later, I started writing Historical Fiction.

It's interesting the reaction you get from other writers when you tell them what genre you write. So many times, their faces light up and they always say something along the lines of, "How fascinating!" or "I've always wanted to do that, but I just don't think I'd be any good at it. There's too much work involved." The simple truth is that anybody can take up writing Historical Fiction, you just have to be patient and take it one step at a time.

Some writers say that you should research as you write, so you're not wasting needless hours pouring over other manuscripts when you should be writing your own. I agree, but I also think that history is a little bit trickier than that. To even begin writing in a time period from long ago, you need to do some groundwork first. Just throwing a story on the page and being ignorant of the history behind it makes for a long road of revisions in the months/years to follow. When it comes to jumping into the world of researching history there are a few things you need to keep in mind:

1) Have a definite time period. Don't say to yourself, "I want to write a story about the American Civil War." Do you realize how involved the history of the American Civil War really is? That's way too much area to cover, unless you have a magnificent idea in mind and you are a genius writer (aren't we all?). You must be specific about where your characters will be and when. Otherwise, you'll find yourself researching needless information, frustrating you to tears, thus causing you to stop before you've even started. Ex: In my three novels, the first takes place between the years 1850-1851. I chose these years because the Fugitive Slave Law was enacted in the States in 1850. In my second novel, I chose the years 1929-1930, because of the Stock Market Crash. My third takes place at Los Alamos during the last two years they were building the first nuclear bomb. The key here is to not extend your research beyond what you'll actually need or use.

2) Choose a real incident or events around which to center your story. Ex: Book #1 -- the Fugitive Slave Law and the Christiana Incident. Book #2 -- the Stock Market Crash and the Ku Klux Klan movement. Book #3 -- the building of the atomic bomb.

3) Don't litter your story with too many historical events. This creates non-fiction with little storyline   worth following. Put your characters into the events, but don't make history the centerpiece of your novel. Your main protagonists must shine no matter what time period you dump them in.

4) Check and double check the historical information you've written into your story. Of course, it's fiction, but that doesn't mean that some music buff out there isn't going to notice that you used a jazz song that wasn't written until after 1929. You want to make sure you have all your facts straight.

5) Visit your setting, if you can. This one's optional, and the reason I say this is because early nineteenth century Virginia looks nothing like it does today. With some places, it's virtually impossible to recreate the historical setting in your mind, especially if it's nothing but congested interstates and sprawling cities. But, if your story takes place in a place where things haven't evolved much beyond what they looked like at the time (Ex: The Trinity Site in New Mexico where they detonated the bomb. Visitors are allowed only twice a year and they've kept the site as well-preserved as they possibly can. Very fascinating to see! On the flip side, almost none of the original buildings from the 1940s remain in Los Alamos today.) then by all means go check it out and get a feel for your character's movements in everyday life. If it's impossible to visit the original then look for something similar. It's just a good idea to be able to visualize where your story will take place.

6) And last but not least, read in your genre. This is the best way to see what's out there and to see who's publishing works similar to your own. If a time period (American Civil War, anyone?) seems completely flooded with novels, it might be best to look at another period and set your characters there. Just food for thought!

Thin it out a little!

As long as you keep writing while you're researching then you should come out all right. Just don't let your story wander away from you, or your characters for that matter. Keep plugging away at it!

Just a quick shout out the the following blog -- Rach Writes. Click on the link and read about the Writers' Platform-Building Crusade she's launched. Hey to all you Crusaders out there!!


Feel free to check out my book reviews at http://www.therandombookreview.blogspot.com.