Why I Write Historical Fiction - Guest Blogpost from Scott Amis

Joseph Scott Amis retired from a thirty-year professional and business career in 2004. He has since devoted his time to medieval and Crusades studies and writing historical fiction. Until recently, Scott was a writer and features editor at Real Crusades History. A native Texan, he lives in Dallas.

 

Good question.  In junior high and high school, my best subjects were English, history, languages, and art. This should have told me something, but I never once considered studying to become an artist, architect, writer, or historian, and I certainly didn’t want to be a dentist or a lawyer.

Off to college, and years spent muddling through stints in pre-med, anthropology, and fine arts. After nine years of “in and out”, I surfaced in the real world with a degree in architecture. This proved to be a late but wise career choice, and I married and settled in soon after. And finally, my mom was happy!

My wife and I are both readers, and, in the days before the internet and Amazon.com, our Saturdays were often spent at the public library. My interests inevitably ran to history and historical fiction; my wife’s, to biographies of famous people, both historical and pop-culture. As time went on, I found myself dreaming about writing a novel, but what to write? As a “dyed-in-the-wool” Southerner - both of my great-grandfathers fought for the South in the US Civil War - and as a “boomer” whose parents and their generation were directly involved in World War II, those legendary conflicts would seem to be my favorite choices.

But, by then, my reading was almost exclusively centered on medieval history and the Crusades, and the 2005 first release of Ridley Scott’s epic “Kingdom of Heaven”, though deeply flawed, seemed to light a spark. I was going to write a novel about the First Crusade!

Aware that this project would require meticulous research and development of a polished style, I began with a short story about an ongoing conflict between neighboring feudal polities in late eleventh century France. The story was successful for my purposes, and became the basis for a fictional account chronicling a young knight’s adventures in France, beginning with his coming of age in 1086 through 1095 and the eve of the First Crusade, and ultimately, ending with his death in the Kingdom of Jerusalem thirty years later.

Having read my share of Crusades novels and a fair sample of scholarly works, I opted for an atypical approach. Instead of beginning with armies of eager Crusaders setting out for the Holy Land, To Shine with Honor commences in 1086, nearly a decade before Pope Urban II delivered his immortal address to the noblemen, knights, and commoners assembled in a field outside of Clermont in November of 1095. Thus, I hoped to show the everyday lives and struggles of people of all social classes in the unsettled and dangerous world of late eleventh century France, and the circumstances which influenced some to become Crusaders.

By early 2010, I had a 900-page first manuscript, and, after numerous rounds of editing and revisions, the first volume of To Shine with Honor was published in summer of 2016 to unexpectedly positive reviews and surprising literary recognition. The second volume continues to be a work-in-progress. Find out more about To Shine with Honor at: (hotlink to amazon page).

Find out more about To Shine with Honor at: here.

Blog Host Helena P. Schrader is the author of 25 historical fiction and non-fiction books, eleven of which have one one or more awards. You can find out more about her, her books and her awards at: https://helenapschrader.com 

Her most recent release, Cold Peace, was runner-up for the Historical Fiction Company BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 Award, as well as winning awards from Maincrest Media and Readers' Favorites. Find out more at: https://www.helenapschrader.com/cold-peace.html

 

 

Why I Write Historical Fiction - A Guest Blogpost by Stephen Estopinal

 Stephen Estopinal grew up in the swamps and bayous of Louisiana. He graduated from  Louisiana State University (class of 1968) and was a US Army veteran (Combat Engineers 1969-1971). He joins me to talk about why he writes historical fiction.

I write Historical Fiction to introduce my readers to aspects of American History that are ignored in most textbooks. I was a living history volunteer at the Chalmette Battlefield National Park and a black powder expert. My infatuation with history, particularly the history of Spanish Colonial Louisiana prompted me to write a series of novels to bring that history to life. I am a descendant of Canary Islanders (Isleños) transported to Louisiana by the Spanish during the American Revolution. My books are based upon on extensive research as well as family oral history. My stories of Colonial Louisiana are from a Spanish point of view.

My first novel was El Tigre de Nueva Orleáns published in 2010 and approved for sale by the National Park Service at the Chalmette National Park Visitor’s Center. It has been followed by a novel nearly every year. Incident at Blood River was published in 2011, Anna in 2012, Escape to New Orleans in 2013, Mobile Must Fall. in 2014, Pensacola Burning in 2015, Solitario; Bootlegging on the Bayou in 2018, The Man From Red Hill  in 2018 and Beneath the Bonnie Blue Flag in 2021. These novels are all historical fictions of 18^th and 19^th Century. They tell the story of the Isleños settlers in Louisiana and their struggle for survival. Published under the label Libros Isleños of Gonzales, Louisiana, writing historical fiction has provided me with an enjoyable hobby and a means of keeping the diverse history of colonial Louisiana alive.

Find out more about Stephen Estopinal and his books here.

 

Why I Write Historical Fiction - A Guest Blogpost by Martin Campbell

 Martin Campbell was born in Greenock, Scotland.  He worked as a psychologist and university lecturer in London, New York, Edinburgh and St Andrews. His first historical fiction novel, Sailor’s Heart, is available in paperback, Kindle and as an audiobook from Amazon. His next book 1856: Croton Oil and Pecuniary Profit will be published in June 2024.

Besides writing, Martin also enjoys sea fishing and playing poker, with little returns on either of these activities.

I write historical fiction by accident.  I am not a historian, nor a novelist.  I am a psychologist.

Five years ago, while walking around the largest artificial lake in the UK, surrounded by the largest man-made woodland in Europe, I met a very old man, a fellow walker.

“Terrible what they did to those poor sailors down there,” was the first thing he said to me, pointing at the lake and shaking his head. 

It was a choice between checking my watch and quickly moving on, or finding out what the hell he was talking about. 

That random comment about sailors became, for me, a research interest, then an almost obsessive need to know about a little-known aspect of WWII naval history.  I discovered that the British Admiralty had set up an onshore psychiatric facility, HMS Standard, to "recycle" Royal Navy sailors who had broken down.  These were men who had suffered “nervous exhaustion” or “combat stress” in battle.

It took me two years of research in naval archives and psychiatry journals to sort out historical fact from fiction and to find out what happened to sailors at this facility.   The fact was more incredible than any fiction. 

The remains of HMS Standard now lie at the bottom of the lake, Kielder Water, after the valley was flooded when a dam was built.

My first thought was to publish my research in one of the many reputable psychology or history journals, where the story would be read by a handful of academics and students and just as quickly forgotten.  The more research that I did, however, the more I became convinced that this important piece of history should be made more relatable and, above all, more accessible to a wider audience.

I had the basic historical facts about what was referred to in academic writing of the time as The Kielder Experiment, or A Submerged Site of Therapeutic Endeavour.  These facts alone told a remarkable story, but I was keen to fill in the gaps.  I wanted to explore the background to “the experiment”, the people involved, their motives and emotions. 

In my professional life, I was familiar with research methods: systematic reviews of evidence, testing hypotheses and investigating causal relationships.  To write a readable dramatization of real events at HMS Standard needed a very a different approach to research, however.  What was required were fine details, minutiae of the past that described and explained why the people–the doctors, the navy officers and the sailors of the time–behaved the way that they did.  My exploration of the WWII medical and historical records, revealed little information about day-to-day life in this isolated facility, set in moorland, 30 miles from the nearest town. 

There were many aspects of local and national life during wartime that I had never considered until I began writing.  What did people wear, how did they speak, what did they eat, how did they suffer during the war, what were their attitudes?  The most important of these questions, for purposes the book at least, was how the general public and the Royal Navy viewed sailors who were no longer able or no longer willing to fight for their country in a time of war.  Were they men who had reached a psychological breaking point, in need of treatment and recovery?  Or were they all just cowards, malingerers and poltroons, not to be pitied but despised?  Are these views different today?

HMS Standard in NE England was where 842 men who had broken down at sea were received and "processed" between 1941-1944.  Some men were never returned to duty.  These were the basic statistics that got me started in writing historical fiction.

I can honestly say that I have learned as much about “human nature” in all its forms in my five years of historical research and writing as I have from my thirty years working as a psychologist.

I hope that readers learn as much from the book Sailor’s Heart as I did from writing it.

 Find out more about "Sailor's Heart" here.

 

 

 

 

Why I Write Historical Fiction - A Guest Blogpost by David Wessel

David K. Wessel is a retired U.S. diplomat and amateur historian turned novelist. When it comes to writing about Germany between the two world wars, he relies not only on his family stories, but on his Rutgers University history degree (where he focused on the Weimar Republic) and a life-long interest in his subject matter. Wessel is one of six children born to Karl-Heinz Wessel, the primary character in Choosing Sides – and the coming sequel, Changing Sides.

I have always loved the old adage: “Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes.” I believe that before ascribing motive to the actions of another person, one should attempt to understand his/her/their life experiences. Before criticizing someone or assuming negative intent behind the words they speak, we should try to appreciate where they are coming from. Before criticizing others for what we see or hear them do, we should make an effort to see things from their perspective.

What are the challenges they have faced? How have their thought processes been formed? What events have they been influenced by? How have they been shaped by the world in which they live? What is their history?

In the words of the renowned scholar and Pulitzer Prize winning author David McCullough, “History is who we are and why we are the way we are.” It is the key to understanding the thoughts and deeds of an individual – and is especially critical to understanding the words and actions of societies.

But the recording of factual history – a description of past events with the dates and locations in which they occurred – does not get into the soul of the participants. Well written historical accounts of days-gone-by do explore the preceding events that shaped the participant’s actions. And the best writers of history, like McCullough, provide insight into the thinking and intent of the protagonists. But their writing, as good as it is, does not leave the reader with a true understanding of what it  would have felt like to be in that time and place.

For that, we need historical fiction. As E. L. Doctorow, author of Billy Bathgate, Ragtime and other wonderful novels said: “The historian will tell you what happened. The novelist will tell you what it felt like.”

When I decided to write the story of my father’s childhood - growing up on both sides of the Atlantic in the years between the two world wars - I wanted to do just this. I hoped to portray what it must have felt like for Dad. In writing about an ordinary family torn apart by Hitler’s Germany, my aim was to develop the reader’s understanding of what it meant to live in that time and place.

How did my family’s experiences in World War I and the post-war years lead to an emigration to the United States? Why did they move back to Germany just a year after Hitler had come to power? What was it like for Dad to be placed in the Hitler Youth? How did the family’s meeting with der Fuhrer himself come about? How did my immediate family respond to the Nazi takeover of their country? And what did the extended family, who remained, feel about it all?

While writing the first draft of Choosing Sides I worked at getting the story down and making sure I had the facts right. I focused on placing the family lore into historical context, building my own understanding of the circumstances behind the family’s multiple moves from northern Germany to southern New Jersey. The result was, in the estimation of my dear wife and ‘first-reader,’ a 90,000 word term paper with a personal twist. It was, at best, something a few of my family members might read. But it was dry and lacking in emotion and devoid of any character development, description of settings, dialogue or buildup of personal feelings and tension between family members. If I wanted anyone else to read it, I needed to liven it up.

I needed to change it from a biographical history to historical fiction. In doing so, I wanted to use the power of fiction to draw the reader into the souls of my characters – my father, his parents, his aunts and uncles and cousins, his schoolmates and friends. I hoped that I would enable the reader to understand the difficult choices my family members made as Hitler ascended in power and their country descended into chaos and despair.

How well I have achieved my goal is, of course, a matter for readers to decide. But I must say that the exercise of getting the family stories down on paper and placing them in the context of this terrible period of history has certainly given me, as the author, a level of understanding that is much deeper than I had before I started. I hope it will do the same for my readers.

 

Blog Host Helena P. Schrader is the author of 25 historical fiction and non-fiction books, eleven of which have one one or more awards. You can find out more about her, her books and her awards at: https://helenapschrader.com 

Her most recent release, Cold Peace, was runner-up for the Historical Fiction Company BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 Award, as well as winning awards from Maincrest Media and Readers' Favorites. Find out more at: https://www.helenapschrader.com/cold-peace.html