What Sparked Your Interest ...

Hi Wee - Just an off the wall comment - you're going to have to rid yourself of the habit of using "so" to introduce sentences or thoughts. It's a bad habit quite a few of us have - you're not alone.

My idea for my historical came from the place where I grew up. It's not a place anyone would look at with the idea of historical importance, but it has a lot of history. Puma

What sparked my interest?

Two of my high school teachers. My history teacher, who approached history as a story, rather than a series of lectures. And my Latin teacher, who taught me the value of buckling down and getting to work. Between the two of them and a school sponsored trip to Italy during my junior year (which they went on), I somehow found myself hooked on Rome.

I've been at it ever since, and when I decided to finally buckle down and write a novel (as opposed to the start-and-abandon mode I'd fallen into previously), I turned to Rome...

Puma said:

Hi Wee - Just an off the wall comment - you're going to have to rid yourself of the habit of using "so" to introduce sentences or thoughts. It's a bad habit quite a few of us have - you're not alone.

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So, what are you saying?

For the first novel I ever wrote it was from a holiday given by my folks when I was kid. It was a book on Rome and Greece. I have been in love with the period, and history as a whole, ever since.

For me, it was watching the miniseries "I, Claudius" for the first time when I was in college. After that, my best friend and I had to read the Robert Graves books. Then we had to read Suetonius and Tacitus. 15 years and a whole lot of reading later, I know I'll always be fascinated by the Roman Empire and hope I can do justice to the story I've been developing in my head.

For me, it was a castle in Wales.
I was already interested in medieval history - that's how I ended up as an archaeologist working on Caergwrle Castle (though my degree had a lot of ancient Greece in it, as well - that's Mary Renault's fault!).
Caergwrle was the place where Prince Dafydd, brother of Llewelyn the Last, started the disastrous uprising that ended up with Edward I taking over Wales.
So I read the Edith Pargeter trilogy, and later I read the Sharon Penman trilogy, and I started to collect books by and about Gerald of Wales and other characters of the time.
I even joined a re-enactment group that specialises in 13thC Wales.
So when I write, that's what tends to come out.

I had an idea for an epistolary novel knocking about in my head for a while, with no time or place grounding it. Last fall we went for a holiday, hiding out on the Isle of Skye, and I fell in love with the place, knew I had to write something set there. On the drive home, the whole plot fell into place and I started writing that night.

The WIP I'm working on now, the first sentence just came to me in the shower. That first sentence gave me my MC and my plot, all at once, and I narrowed in time and place once I started doing my research.

So, I suppose, I came up with the basic story idea first, and then selected a time and place in which I could make that happen.

Mine came to me through research.

I had a story, but not a place in history to put it.

So I dipped into the broad river of medieval history, and looked for an out-of-the-way place to put this thing that had been growing in my head for several years.

Then, when reading through a book about Celtic Britain, I saw a stark black and white photograph of a twisted tree at the summit of a small, rounded hill in northern Wales, not far from Snowdon. I knew, whatever this place was, it was the setting for my story.

Then I read up on it, read the legend surrounding, read the legends surrounding the legends, read the history and the pseudo-history and lots and lots of medieval Welsh poems (translated into English, of course.) Read Rosemary Sutcliff and Mary Stewart and Marion Zimmer Bradley and T.H. White and Geoffrey Ashe and John Morris and Leslie Alcock and Christopher Snyder. After lots of tries and lots and lots (and lots) of drafts, I finally went there.

I spent a week walking around the soggy hills of Snowdonia, climbing mountains, following streams, taking pictures of sheep (hey, we don't have sheep where I come from.) Everything was perfect, just as I had imagined it. Better, even.

And I knew I had to start over.

Well, several months later I got out of my funk and sat down and created this totally-new concept, incorporating the characters from my original idea and adding everything I've learned through my research.

I'm two chapters in. At this rate, I'll never finish.

So I guess finding Wales was out of necessity of having a place to put a bunch of homeless characters, and stumbling upon one striking photograph. But I never want to leave.

"Last fall we went for a holiday, hiding out on the Isle of Skye, and I fell in love with the place, knew I had to write something set there."

Hey! The muse came down on me like a ton of bricks me on the Isle of Skye!

It's funny, because although I was an avid reader, I never gave much thought to writing. We were on vacation on the Isle of Skye in the summer of 1999, and after a great dinner and maybe too much wine in a restaurant called the Three Chimneys, I don't know if it was the wine or the sheep or the sound of the sea, but I got an idea for a story that would not leave me alone. I went home and researched and researched and wrote and wrote my first novel. It sits in a drawer.

But I found how much I love to write, and in doing some family geneological research I ran across some ancestors (my husband's) who were "longhunters". Another story pestered me. It took me three years to finish it, but this, my second novel set in colonial Virginia is being published next summer by Berkley/Penguin.

The WIP I began to keep me busy while agent hunting was inspired by some research I had to do for my job on the history of letterpress printing. Go figure. Surprise, surprise, my agent was able to sell it based on the crappy synopsis I wrote, and it will be published in the summer of 2009 by Berkley/Penguin as well.

I never know where an idea will come from, so I always have my notebook handy.

There's a certain place here in Canada that holds a lot of history and is stunning to drive through. When I was as young as 5 and travelling on family vacations I would insist my parents pull over so I could breathe it in. I did this every year until I was old enough to drive myself there. As I grew older I realized not everyone held the same fascination as I did and I could not comprehend how that was possible. I devoured the few books published on it.

There is scientific significence to this spot, but I'm far from a scientist. It always seemed my love for this area was just a strange quirk, until earlier this year when I realized I've been spending my life preparing to write about this place, the history, the events, the people, the culture. I'm researching now -- there are actually a lot more fictional accounts now, and no recent non-fiction accounts. There are gaps and politically corrected revisions of some of the cultural aspects. As I research, what needs to be said comes out more and more. It expands, it contracts, it becomes tied into events today.

I'm being vague because it's still very personal to me. I'm not sure where this is going, but it has been a great ride so far.

funidream said:

"Last fall we went for a holiday, hiding out on the Isle of Skye, and I fell in love with the place, knew I had to write something set there."

Hey! The muse came down on me like a ton of bricks me on the Isle of Skye!

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It is quite an inspirational place!

So far I haven't written anything except a single short story that is historical fiction. But my future novel writing plans (after the next two projects) include a piece of historical fiction surrounding George Washington and Alexander Hamilton. Back in college a history prof of mine pointed out how there's this mystique surrounding George Washington such that almost nobody ever looks into who he actually was, as a human being. We all think of him in the same terms as God and Santa Claus-- this nebulous father-figure at the beginning of the US. Anyway that really got me started picking away at George Washington, and then Alexander Hamilton, both of whom are fascinating as far as I'm concerned. Through numerous biographies I've come to "know" them and I'd love to write a novel about how their lives intertwine. I love to write about father-son relationships, and I feel like Washington and Hamilton filled those roles for each other in a lot of ways.

However, I don't yet feel confident about my abilities as far as historical research is concerned. So for the meantime I'm working on other projects, but I am slowly accumulating more and more knowledge. I've read a lot of bios on Washington and Hamilton, and I think next up I will be tackling the Marquis de Lafayette. So... maybe ten years down the road, I'll be churning out something in this vein.

It started with this letter, dated Jan 10, 1807, written by the CinC of the East Indies Station, off Malacca: In it, Sir Edward Pellew is describing the progress of his two sons, both of whom he promoted to captain around the age of 17:

P. I believe has made about 3000l.if he looks out for a good Girl with either Money or Connections he may do well. He is always in love; and I have hard work to keep him out of the noose. Cast about you for a nice thing who will take a open hearted good boy--without money. You are all rich in the North. All boys are in great danger in India--snap is the word, as the following story will convince you....in short, I never allow P. or F. to sit twice at table with the same young lady, for they really push them upon the boys in so bare faced a manner they can hardly get off without saying soft things. I have been obliged to wash P. with the spray of a long cruise--to avoid consequences which neither he nor I intended."

And that was just the beginning...

A friend of mine, a breeder of Afghan Hounds, wrote a story for her newsletter about the first Christmas, from the POV of a dog. I loved it and wanted her to turn it into a novel. She just couldn't find the inspiration, or time.

I did a little research to try and interest her, started finding out all sorts of fascinating things and took off on my own instead (sans dog).

No clue, I'm sure my Jewish background was the influence for setting it in the First Temple period Jerusalem, but why I wanted to write a mystery (I don't often even read them) is still a mystery to me. But the idea has been plaguing me for years.

Sadly research in to this era has been hard; I don’t have accesses to an academic library right now. Hopefully that will change soon.

Fifteen years ago I picked up a book called "When God Was A Woman" by Merlin Stone. The rest is history (yuk-yuk). Truly, it started me on a fascinating romp through Sumerian archeology, anthropology, and etymology that hasn't ended yet.

After finishing my first draft, I read "The Chalice and the Blade" by Riane Eisler, which confirmed eloquently my book's premise about a matricentric society defeated by a culture of male supremacy. Recommended reading for everyone, women especially, and still in print.

Roman era

ClaudiaGray said:

For me, it was watching the miniseries "I, Claudius" for the first time when I was in college. After that, my best friend and I had to read the Robert Graves books. Then we had to read Suetonius and Tacitus. 15 years and a whole lot of reading later, I know I'll always be fascinated by the Roman Empire and hope I can do justice to the story I've been developing in my head.

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The Roman Empire is indeed a fascinating period to study. And a LONG period to study.

Did you see The Last Legion? It didn't last long in the theaters. No advertising and no big-name actors. But it was actually pretty enjoyable, especially if you like that time period.

My grandfather

My love for history was sparked primarily by my paternal grandfather, who used to tell me STORY after STORY after STORY of events in our nation's past. I couldn't get enough of it.

My father also fueled my love for history, and where I grew up (Northern Virginia / Washington DC area) had a lot to do with it as well.

I love history, because I see it for what it is - a story.

Favorite era: Early US history (American Revolution through the Civil War)

Second favorite era: Roman era and birth of Christianity

My high school History teacher got me interested. He was S-O-O enthusiastic. When I came across a selection from my book club on the medieval period I was hooked and researched extensively before writing my medieval novel. Now I'm writing about ancient Babylon but I'm not quite sure what set me off in that direction.

What got me hooked on history? The teeny school library in elementary school. I read through the fiction section all too quickly and moved on to the next shelf--which was the biographies, and started reading. When most kids were reading the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, I was reading about conquerors and emperors, queens and pharoahs, biblical figures, ancient battles with names I couldn't hope to pronounce at that age.

By the time we got to history in school, I was a teacher's nightmare because I just wasn't happy reciting dates and names. LOL!

Presently, I'm working with the Jack the Ripper murders. Just plain fascinating stuff, that few months.