Why We Must Embrace Reading and Writing Historical Fiction
Historical reminders are all around us. Historical fiction is a story that takes readers to a time and place in the past. I use plots and settings to remind us of historical events. My novels are set in a culturally recognizable time.
(The Art of Mixing Fact and Fiction in Historical Novels.)
My first three books took place in the post-World War I time frame. My goal was to research this period in which we hear very little about. World War I (the Great War) is a period we consider mysterious. However, the more we speak about what happened during and around World War I, the greater the insight is on our actions and the way we live currently.
To open up my research, I wanted to write about the period in which my grandmother was born, which was around 1911 or 1912 depending upon the midwife’s accurate account of time. My understanding of that period was lucid and scarce. Most of the novels I had been reading encircled around the time before and after World War II.
The desire to want more ignited my curiosity, and I ended up with my first novel, Blackberry Days of Summer, which was also adapted into a musical theatrical production, Blackberry Daze. I was forced to examine the causes of World War in America and how it helps to sculpt our lives. Topics like racial disparities, societal norms, and shame were at the center of my novel.
The Helen Hayes Award nominated play, Blackberry Daze, cemented the importance of history and telling stories that were held secret which also inhibited the mental growth of its victims. I found out there were many people who had lived a life of silence yet identified with an air of freedom to the subject matter written in the novel, Blackberry Days of Summer.
Since then, I have written two children’s novels and a young adult novel. All of them inspire children to read and embrace humanity. My love for education took me down that path, and although it was so enjoyable, my heart remains with stories of the past. From the setting to the plot and characters, they are all compelling in understanding our current times.
Historical novels are an exploration of the roots as those of a tree. It is the beginning of life as we know it today. Painting a picture of a moment in time we have not experienced is like being a star in your own movie, however the story is of your own beginning. Creating characters in which anybody can identify with is more than satisfying. Especially having an antagonist and protagonist that your heart beats to learn more about, simply because you can relate to the activities and experiences of those in the past.
Before my current novel, A Right Worthy Woman (Simon and Schuster), about America’s first female and African American banker, Maggie Lena Walker, I continued with the Berry series following the characters from Blackberry into An Elderberry Fall and Cranberry Winter. There is another one, waiting to be published.
A Right Worthy Woman, my current novel, opened my eyes to the possibilities of women in the workplace. How one woman, Maggie Lena Walker, kicked down doors in Colonial Virginia during the Jim Crow Era was an experience I am happy to have researched. The descriptions of the settings were precise, and there was an immediate appreciation for the furniture and style of living we admire today. Seeing a woman with so much tenacity heightened my desire to reach goals I felt were unattainable.
Check out Ruth P. Watson’s A Right Worthy Woman here:
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The turns and twists of the community are all some of the things like the adversity we are dealing with today. Does history repeat itself? Also, the 1919 plague of the Spanish Flu. It was a viral/bacterial spread that literally shut down the country similar to our current pandemic. Above all, learning that in 1927 Maggie Lena Walker was featured in Forbes magazine led me to believe she should be honored with the other pantheons in this great country and possibly a building name in her honor on Wall Street.
I love historical fiction. With this genre I am able to comprehend things like slavery, the Holocaust, war, and the bravery of survival. When I began writing, my goal was just to tell a story which had been buried in my thoughts for years. I didn’t realize how much I would enjoy researching time periods and people and places and ultimately pulling them together for the greater good of my readers.
My advice to anyone wanting to write in the genre is to really love history yet be prepared for the emotions that are attached to the stories and how it can make you angry, cry, and smile. It is the precise use of everything provided to us online, in libraries, and from the experiences that surround you. One thing you will relish is how history often repeats itself and how much power we have in preventing the negative things from happening.
So, write your story and share it with the world. Do the research. Ask questions and dig deep into every bit of information you can find. Also, don’t forget to leave room for the things that are left unsaid, and at that time insert your creativity and let the character speak about what you feel is obvious or per se forgotten.
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