Guest Post by Lee Swanson - Ale was the staple drink among the medieval English population, not beer or wine. The first importation of beer is believed to have been no earlier than 1400 at Winchelsea and the initial cultivation of hops on English soil to have occurred in 1520. Wine was an alternative beverage … Continue reading Drinking Ale–An Essential Detail of Historical Fiction Set in Medieval England

Guest Post by Jeffrey Hantover - Within the broad boundaries of historical reality, writers of historical fiction must create a fictional reality that has integrity. The parts must fit together. The whole created must be believable. One jarring slang phrase from the 21st century from the mouth of a Roman emperor or a Julia Child … Continue reading Mind Readers: Thoughts on the Historical Imagination

Guest Post by Ann Marti Friedman - “Truth isn’t in accounts, but in account books,” Josephine Tey wrote in The Daughter of Time. While she praised account books for supplying facts for the historian, they can also be sources of inspiration for the historical novelist. Account books and budgets help the writer to determine the … Continue reading Account Books and Budgets as Writing Inspiration

Guest Post by Grace Hitchcock - When I first began writing novellas, I found that I was going to have to do some serious pruning to get the word count down. Writing a novella is quite different from writing a lengthy novel. After only a couple of writing sessions, I began running into problems with having too … Continue reading 5 Things to Remember When Writing a Novella

Guest Post by Jane Stubbs - When you travel in a country where the toilet—if you can find one—consists of two places to put your feet and a hole in the ground, you soon stop wearing tight jeans. Suddenly, you understand why for centuries women wore long skirts.  This was brought home to me when … Continue reading Why Women Wear Skirts