Categories of Historical Fiction

Categories of Historical Fiction

Classification, like periodization, is arbitrary, and much of it derives from marketing. Where do we put in the bookstores, so interested people can find it? A quick tour of the internet, however, may lead us to paraphrase Ozzy Osbourne: How many bloody categories are there? Five, eight, ten?  Keeping in mind that historical novels need… Read more »

Historical Fiction: What is it?

Historical Fiction: What is it?

When I told a writing instructor I wrote historical fiction, she replied, “Don’t put too much history in it.” I blinked. Say what? How can we have a clue about where we’re going if we don’t know where we’ve been?  Historical fiction can take us to the foreign country that is the past, can make… Read more »