The Historical Writer’s Dilemma: How Accurate Must You Be?

My guest is historical author, Anne Cleeland. Fascinating lady and one who writes an excellent tale of adventure, danger, spies, and suspense set in regency England. Today she shares some of her thoughts on research and writing historicals. 

I am lucky enough to have two series debuting this summer—and neither of them draws from personal experience. I’m a lifelong California native, but I’m writing a Regency adventure series and a British detective mystery series—that features an Irish heroine, no less. It almost goes without saying that precise accuracy will be abandoned in the interest of telling a good story, but how much license should be taken, and at what point do you run the risk of having the reader abandon your implausible ship?

There are no easy answers, but along the way I've attended a few panels on the knotty problem of how accurate you should be when writing historicals, so for those of you who read or write historical novels, I thought I’d pass along what I've gleaned.
 

In the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice, neither Elizabeth Bennett nor Mr. Darcy wear gloves to the formal Netherfield ball—an omission that would have been unheard of at the time; both would have gone home rather than attend bare-handed. In Downton Abbey, one of the streets in the town has a double yellow line—not exactly Edwardian. The movie Braveheart tells us that the future Edward III was the product of a liaison between William Wallace and Isabella of France.  The problem is, Wallace was executed seven years before Edward was born, and Isabella of France was nine at the time Wallace was executed.

Are the stories any less compelling? The answer probably depends on your perspective. If you teach history—or are just a purist in general—these liberties are unacceptable and your disbelief is no longer suspended.  On the other hand, if you are not familiar with the era, you may not even notice these types of errors, but you may also come away with a distorted view of historical fact.   The trick to writing a story from an earlier time period is to find the right balance between dry-as-dust history and an engaging story, and how accurate you need to be—at least in my opinion—depends on your target readership.

If, for example, you are writing “hot” Regencies, strict accuracy is necessarily abandoned unless you write about the demi-monde, because nice young ladies didn't fool around (and were never given an opportunity, even if they were so inclined.)   I know some may want to argue about this point, but remember that Jane Austen served as a reporter at the scene, so to speak, and in her books it was a scandal if an unmarried woman wrote a letter to a man she was not yet engaged to. “Nice” women of the time were chaperoned within an inch of their lives until they were handed over to a husband with the correct pedigree.

So it seems that the question is not whether to take liberties with historical accuracy, it is how much liberty to take. My own rule of thumb is to never write anything that would “jolt” the average reader out of the story’s time frame—not the average history professor, just the average reader.

Here are some things to ask yourself: 

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• How much accuracy do you like to see from your favorite historical writers? Can you think of any other examples where an anachronism “jolted” you out of the story?

                                                                                          
                                                                                                                      

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TAINTED ANGEL Anne Cleeland

A Deadly Game of Deception...

Notorious and beautiful, Vidia Swanson works as an "angel," trying to coax incriminating secrets from powerful men who may or may not be traitors of the Crown. Her latest target is suspected of stealing gold from Wellington's troops, but matters take an alarming turn when Vidia realizes that her spymaster thinks she is the one who is tainted—a double agent working for Napoleon.

Backed into a corner, she can only hope to stay one step ahead of the hangman in a race to stop the next war before it destroys her—and destroys England. Tainted Angel offers up a compelling game of cat and mouse in which no one can be trusted and anyone can be tainted. EXCERPT 

"A world of spies and traitors where no one is quite what they seem and the truth is only true for a moment...a thrilling take that will keep you guessing until the very last page."—Victoria Thompson, author of Murder in Chelsea

                                                                                                                                                       



Anne Cleeland holds a degree in English from UCLA as well as a degree in law from Pepperdine University, and is a member of the California State Bar.  She writes a historical fiction series set in the Regency period as well as a contemporary mystery series set in New Scotland Yard.  A member of the Historical Novel Society and Mystery Writers of America, she lives in California and has four children.

BACK IN THE USSR

My guest is mystery/suspense author, Joyce Yarrow. Joyce shares a bit about the background of the latest book in her Jo Epstein Mystery Series, The Last Matryoshka, and the travel she did to give it an authentic feel. 

I had reached a crossroads in my story – actually Jo Epstein’s story. Her Russian émigré stepfather was being pursued by demons from his past that he refused to unmask. Jo’s job was to prove his innocence— the only acceptable outcome given the vulnerable state her mother was in—but Nikolai had made this nigh impossible. His irascible nature and reluctance to share even the most basic information – for example, that he had a sister still living in Moscow—was driving her mad. And just when she finds some clues that might exonerate him, Nikolai foils her once again by fleeing the country.

It was a given that she would follow him – after all, I’m the writer and had planned this all along. But nonetheless, I was not as ready for this transition as I might have been. With shelves crammed with books about everything Russian, and in particular the class of criminals known as the vory, I was as confident of accurately writing the scenes set in Russia as a first-time skier who has mistaken Mt. Everest for the bunny slope.

So I went ahead and bought tickets for my then 16-year-old son and myself from Dublin to Moscow.  We would take our family vacation in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and then my husband would fly back to the States, leaving Ian and me to embark on our adventure.

This was not the first time I had traveled “in Jo’s shoes.” Although I grew up in New York, I live in Seattle and it seems that while I wasn’t looking, someone turned Manhattan into a foreign country. Which was why--during the writing of the first Jo Epstein mystery, Ask the Dead—I took so many trips back home to update myself I would have used up all the visa pages had my passport been required.

Oh yeah – I was talking about Russia. Every place that Ian and I explored in and around Moscow—from the Mayakovsky Metro Station (I loved the Moscow Subway!) to the Suzdal Monastery and the Matryoshka factory in Sergiev Posad—every nook and cranny in the Soviet-style apartment we stayed in near the University—made its way into the book. We were even treated to dinner in a Georgian restaurant by a Commander in the Russian Criminal Police. He blessed the plot I had devised—yes, sometimes we writers do our research and get it right—and then gave me his cell number just in case I had further questions. How lucky was that? And it was fascinating to hear him talk about the days when the vory battled the police in a fair fight and everyone followed the code. No so today!

My son was very tolerant—although he did panic a little when the doors of Vladimir Central Prison clanged shut behind us—the first Americans ever to tour this fearsome place. His paranoia rubbed off on me and Jo ended up spending some unexpected time incarcerated there.

I could have finished The Last Matryoshka using Google Earth and without ever leaving home – after all, Robert Louis Stevenson wrote Treasure Island while he was confined to his bed. But being a neophyte in Moscow alongside Jo was too good a chance to pass up. How else could I have learned that to avoid being recognized as an American in Moscow all one has to do is carry a plastic bag instead of a backpack? Or that certain underground monastery cells were once used to imprison heretics? Where else could I have experienced the chaos of airports where queuing up is for sissies only? And how else could I have met the model for Nikolai’s mysterious sister, Olga, who he wrongly believed had betrayed his parents to the KGB?

• Have you ever traveled someplace you never dreamed of in order to follow your dream?

• What's your favorite "travel tip" for blending in with the natives?

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Available in hardcover and ebook 

The Last Matryoshka by Joyce Yarrow


A poetry-writing private investigator tries to save her Russian stepfather....

Full-time private investigator/part-time poet Jo Epstein travels to New York and eventually to Russia to help clear her emigre stepfather—who is framing him for murder and who is sending him threatening messages in Russian nesting dolls (matryoshkas). Her investigation takes her on a journey into her stepfather’s past and into the honor-bound code of the “vory,” a Russian criminal syndicate. Excerpt Book trailer

"Intricately layered like the Russian nested doll of the title..." Library Journal

Buy: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Istoria Books

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Joyce Yarrow was born in the SE Bronx, escaped to Manhattan as a teenager and now lives in Seattle with her husband and son. Along the way to becoming a full-time author, Joyce has worked as a screenwriter, singer-songwriter, multimedia performance artist and most recently, a member of the world music vocal ensemble, Abráce.

Joyce is a Pushcart nominee, whose stories and poems have been widely published. Her first book, Ask the Dead (Martin Brown 2005), was selected by The Poisoned Pen as a Recommended First Novel and hailed as “Bronx noir”. Her latest book, The Last Matryoshka, takes place in Brooklyn and Moscow. It was published in hardcover by Five Star/Cengage and is now available for Kindle through Istoria Books. (www.IstoriaBooks.com)

Joyce considers the setting of her books to be characters in their own right and teaches workshops on "The Place of Place in Mystery Writing."


You can find Joyce on Facebook and at her Website.

You can read more about Joyce Yarrow’s writing journey, her P.I. brother, her childhood in the Bronx, her use of place as character in her books: http://istoriabooks.blogspot.com/2012/02/joyce-yarrow-from-crime-ridden-bronx-to.html

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Look at other Istoria Books offerings here: http://www.istoriabooks.com

Istoria Books: eBooks You Want to Read at Prices You Want to Pay

Research - The Monster That Ate My Writing Time.

I'd like to give a warm welcome to my friend and Romance author, Sherilyn Winrose. Her topic for discussion is one that all writers can identify with: Research. I can get lost in research. I go to a site to check out a particular fact and end up spending hours following up on all sorts of added things. I do the same thing when I'm in the library and especially if it's historical research. You usually can find me sitting behind a wall of books reading or scribbling madly in my notebook

I'm glad I'm not the only writer who can get lost in research. Sherilyn discusses the distractions and the compulsion to add extra tidbits to the WIP while doing research.



I'm editing my historical romance, Escape to Love, at the moment. I never liked the ending. Time to clean it up and get it right.

What has surprised me during this edit is even after extensive, exhaustive research when I was writing it. I find myself researching more.

Mid-Nineteenth century U.S. history is a passion of mine. It's no surprise, when I surface from the multitude websites hours are sucked up. Not only is writing time gone, but then I find all sorts of little plot points begging to be written even though they aren't needed and would serve no purpose to anything except my ego.

Getting distracted at this particular stage is a nice, if not a weakly concealed break and completely unnecessary. How much is too much? Oh, when I find myself adding paragraphs just to pass on this or that tidbit to the reader. I know the derned tidbit is going to hit the cutting room floor even as I write it.

Yet, somehow I find it difficult to write to the point when I have all sorts of interesting historical tidbits floating in my mind scape.

It's not like I can sit down with non-writer friends and expound on all of this cool information I've learned. They tend to give me that, 'here we go again' expression. My family members suddenly remember chores which must be done right now, or find a slow spot to slip out. Sigh...

So what am I to do with all this information? Too much for the book, too little for a degree, and boring nonsense to my friends and family.

Why a sequel of course!

I no longer wonder why authors take one idea or group there of and create entire libraries out of them. Fabricating fiction to hit as real takes work and dedication. The likes of which I never fully appreciated until recently.

Given the number of works I have in progress it is very likely more research will be needed when I get back to writing, Return to Love.

Good thing I enjoy researching this time period.

How do you handle your research? Any hints you'd like to share on managing research time?

*~*~*~*~
Sherilyn is a native North Dakotan, currently residing in Eastern Washington. She draws inspiration from the Western locations she has lived and visited. Romance with an edge is what she enjoys reading. So it's no surprise it's what she writes. Safe Harbor is her debut novel. When she’s not writing, Sherilyn enjoys spending time with her husband and their two grown children.


Visit Sherilyn at: http://www.sherilynwinrose.com/

Blurb for Safe Harbor:

Are we ever truly clear of our past? Is there such a thing as Safe Harbor? Jenna Davidson escaped the drug-ridden streets, emerging as the person she always wanted to be.Her debut country CD, ‘After the Dark’, is due to be released the end of October. A stage persona is a price she’s willing to pay for the career she so desperately wants. The sky is wide open. Jenna couldn’t ask for more, until the life she'd worked so hard to leave behind comes to call.

Lt. Bryan Jamison’s determination to see his partner’s murder solved has brought him to this unassuming suburban home. The violet-eyed girl has eluded him for five long years. Bryan has no intention of letting anything or anyone get in the way. Kingpin Simon Dilante is going to prison.

Available on Amazon.com