What about the writing part?

I’ve been posting a lot about the Civil War Era, but not a lot on the writing part of the “Civil War Writer”.

Of course for the writer thing, you can check out the pages on my current novels, and I’ll be adding reviews, and other information as it become available.  Or you can check out the pages on my web site that tells you where and how to purchase these books as they become available… But enough of the sales pitch.

Writing about any era or even a place that you’re not familiar with first hand can be a challenge.  It involves a lot of research, and with the regression into the past, that research is very important and doesn’t stop with the history, but also has to encompass the present.  Why?  To make the connection believable to the people of today that read the book. 

For instance, a fiction writer is permitted to use literary license, and fabricate places, buildings, events, and of course people but (and this is a big but) these “fabrications” have to blend, and fit into the history, and actual location (unless the entire town is a fabrication).  Placing my novels in the Civil War era does place limits on me, limits that I welcome because when done correctly, it helps to bring the past alive.  The more accuracy in the historical facts, the realer the fiction becomes.

in future posts I’ll expond on some of the things that inspire the novels that I’ve written and am writing.

Please let me know if you have any questions, or comments.

Tags: civil war, ficiton, history, reading, writing