Historical Fiction- One Genre that is here to stay

Last weekend I attended a writers conference and at the Protagonist ball I dressed up as Zenobia the Warrior Queen.

The great thing about my job is not only am I promoting a fantastic book series about Zenobia but I’m learning how to improve my own skills as a writer. The next couple of weeks I will share my notes from the classes I attended in hopes it will help other writers. One of my favorite classes was on Historical Fiction.  Now of course with these ideas not everything has to be followed to the T. With writing there seems to be an exceptions to everything. I hear people say you can never do this certain thing and the next time I’m reading a New York Times best selling author I find them breaking that exact rule. What I've learned is yes there are rules to follow but there are also rules to be broken. This Historical Fiction class was very helpful and I received great advice from Heather B. Moore who is an author of eleven historical novels.

Heather B. Moore – “Historical Fiction – One Genre that is here to stay”

Write what you know but also write what you love. Research can open your world to new ideas.

Why Historical Fiction sells: We like to learn from the past. We ask questions like; where did our families come from? We Love to learn. History stands the test of time.

Study something you like; a certain time period that interests you, and then it won’t feel like work. You will be excited to write. Focus on major events or highlight a more critical time or era.

After you researched and become familiar with a certain era you can continue to write in that time period.

You want your readers to connect with a major event or a major character.

Building a historical world and integrating your research:

• Avoid information dumps
• Sprinkle in details
• Move the plot forward
• Take out cliches – like modern day thoughts
• Go back to basics – make dialog simple

Include in your research:

• Weather, climate, topography
• Clothing
• Religious culture (do people convert in masses?) You may not want your MC (Main Character) to go against what the masses believe or else they will be ostracized
• Social structure – level of society
• Government
• Traditions, holiday festivals- create a scene that comes to life
• Occupations & Industry- what does your characters do for work?
• Food & Agriculture- What do they eat? Do they farm?
• Travel Methods – carriages? Social status decides how they get around

Dialect choices:

• Characterization tool
• Lighten up on the dialect – use a couple words but don’t be too heavy
• Keep us in the story and don’t slow it down
• Choose a few select words to show dialect
• 
  

Dialog –

• Creates character
• Increases pacing –readers skim to dialog
• “Shows”
• Establishes time period
• Can put us in the story
• 
  

Characterizing historical figures:

What if a major character is a historical figure?

• Emotions
• Motivations- Ask your MC what motivates them?
• Background- What makes them act a certain way?
• Environment
• Character Arc – know the arc before you start writing

Expanding Historical facts into plot arc:

• Story always comes first
• Don’t show off your knowledge
• Preface – a place to share where you received your historical facts
• Website – a great place to share your knowledge of that time frame
• Motivation – events, wars, people etc… If a character is desperate enough it can motivate them to do lots of things

Focus on the right conflict:

• Most compelling
• Unique, hasn’t been done to death
• Decide on which part of a person’s life is most interesting

Why you don’t have to be an expert -

• Indexes – look up nonfiction book sources
• Google
• Email Historians & Scholars
• Interview professors or a skilled worker in a certain field
• Documentaries – can help visually

Make sure you get 1 – 2 credible sources and Wikipedia is not one of them. Children books and magazines with education links are helpful. Keep track of your sources.

Selling your novel through nonfiction platform:

• Ask yourself –
  • What am I an expert in?
  • How am I different?
  
  
• Join a group (historical society)
• Volunteer
• Speak for free
• Teach classes

More information about Heather Moore - http://hbmoore.com/

There are many events in Zenobia – Birth of a Legend, the historical fiction novel Russ Wallace wrote, that show Zenobia experiencing injustice which becomes a great motivator. In beginning of the novel, we learn how she should have been put to death at birth just because she was a girl. She was raised pretending to be a boy. You can only imagine this experience would teach her life is not fair. You have two choices when you face the cruelty of life, you either become a victim or you become an advocate to fight against injustice.  Zenobia decided to fight. One thing Russ Wallace says about the Zenobia series is how much imagination he has to use in writing ancient history. I think he does an awesome job at giving us great historical facts but also making the characters realistic enough we can relate with their struggles. 

How February came to be

Calendars and months have changed a lot over the years. Most of this took place before Zenobia’s time but still very thought-provoking. Don't forget to take the discovery quiz at the end. See how much you know of the history of calendars. 

The original Roman calendar was said to be invented by Romulus, the first king of Rome, at around 753 BCE (Before Common Era). The calendar started the year in March (Martius) and consisted of 10 months, with 6 months of 30 days and 4 months of 31 days. The winter season was not assigned to any month, so the calendar year only lasted 304 days with 61 days unaccounted for in the winter.

Februarius (February) was not part of the original calendar, but was added (with a variable number of days), as the month preceding the beginning of the year. Sometimes there was an additional intercalary month.

Februarius became known as the purification month or atonement, as the Lupercalia Roman festival suggests. Originally, Februarius may have had 23 days. In time, the calendar was standardized so that it had 12 months with 29 or 31 days, except for Februarius which had 28. Later, Julius Caesar re-standardized the calendar to line up with the seasons.

Julian Calendar Reform

Among the offices Caesar was Pontifex Maximus, the highest Roman priest. The calendar was the province of the priests because it was they who annually picked the dates of the religious festivals. By 46 B.C., what should have been autumn harvest festivals were lining up with the summer. This would be a problem because you can't harvest what hasn't yet grown. When Caesar returned from Egypt to Rome that year, he fixed the Roman calendar, probably based on what he'd learned from the astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria, in Egypt. (Side note: Alexandria, Egypt had the largest library until Caesar visited. It is also the location where most of book two takes place in Zenobia – Challenging a Legend.)

It’s also said the calendar was changed from the Roman Republican Calendar by Caesar because he was tired of its corruption. Priests back then would exploit the calendar for political reasons, and would add in days, sometimes months, in order to keep favored politicians in office.

The new calendar had an average of 365 ¼ days per year. So to solve this problem, Caesar created a leap year every four years, which meant that every four years, they would repeat February 23. In the Julian calendar, there was never a 29th of February. The year was broken into 12 months: Ianuarius, Februarius, Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Iunius, Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November, and December. In 44 B.C. the Romans renamed Quintilis, Iulius, after Julius Caesar, and in 8 B.C. Sextilis was renamed Augustus, after Caesar Augustus.

The major problem with the Julian calendar was the fact that it was off by 11 minutes every year. The Julian system says a year is an average of 365.25 days, when it takes closer to 365.2422 days for the earth to return to the same point while orbiting the sun, putting the calendar off by 11 minutes, or 1 day every 128 years.

The Gregorian calendar is the most widely used calendar today.  It is derived from the Julian calendar and named after Pope Gregory XIII who decreed the new calendar on February 24th 1582. The Gregorian calendar was adopted initially by the Catholic countries of Europe, with other countries adopting it over the following centuries. The motivation for the Gregorian reform was that the Julian calendar assumes that the time between vernal equinoxes is 365.25 days, when in fact it is almost 11 minutes shorter. The discrepancy results in a drift of about three days every 400 years. At the time of Gregory's reform there had already been a drift of 10 days since Roman times, resulting in the spring equinox falling on 11 March instead of the ecclesiastically fixed date of 21 March, and moving steadily earlier in the Julian calendar. Because the spring equinox was tied to the celebration of Easter, the Roman Catholic Church considered this steady movement in the date of the equinox undesirable.

 How would you like to lose 10 days in one month?

Zenobia loved to learn and expand her knowledge. Take a quiz and challenge yourself:

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/curiosity/topics/calendars-quiz.htm

Resources:

http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/julian-calendar.html

http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/holidaysfestivals/f/CaesarCalendar.htm

http://dsc.discovery.com

What is Ancient History?

1. Ancient History is the history of the ancient world from the earliest known civilization to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD.
2.  Informal -Something that is already long familiar and no longer new, interesting, or relevant.

On a recent trip to Vegas, I was thrilled to find a statue of the Goddess Diana from Roman Mythology in Caesars Palace.  Zenobia in book one was compared to the Goddess because of her skills in archery.

Diana statue in Caesars Palace

I'm excited when I find readers, book clubs, and organizations that focus on history. Most groups spotlight Renaissance or Medieval times. Groups who center on Ancient History can sometimes come off as boring. I might not have been interested in knowing more of the time frame if it wasn't for Zenobia from the 3rd century. She brings a point of view that even today we can relate to. Ancient History doesn't have to be "Ancient History" and we can make it fun and interesting. I'm a visual learner so walking around Caesars Palace made the history of Roman times come to life. 

Even riding on the elevator was a history lesson to be found

As I explored Caesars Palace it was like  being transported back to Roman times.

of course Caesar was a focal point

Zenobia  came along on the Roman tour of  the extensive grounds

There were beautiful gardens and statues everywhere

Roman towers

Sparkling water fountains

and Roman Mythology was all around

I don't even need a passport to travel to different times in history.

next stop Egypt