Introducing Historical Magic

Short Takes on Historical Fiction, Plus Reviews and Recommendations

So, what was your favorite high school subject? This question recently popped up on a favorite web site—one of several “personal questions” intended to verify my identity. Unfortunately, I couldn’t remember my original answer. Did I say history or literature? I’ve loved both for as long as I can remember, which no doubt accounts for my love of historical fiction.

For me, finding myself mid-book and immersed in another era is reading bliss. That’s not to say that historical novels are uniformly blissful, of course. The past contains more than its fair share of gore, injustice, and human stupidity, and the genre reflects this reality. Yet stories of characters living in bygone times and unfamiliar settings always intrigue me, and it’s not just escapism. Part of the magic of well-done historical fiction is its ability to pose difficult questions about today. I may be reading about ancient Rome, but I’m also comparing its norms and ethics to our own. How much has society improved in the last two thousand years? What does our progress, or lack of it, say about us?

What better way to indulge my passion for historical fiction than by starting a blog? In Historical Magic, I’ll share some of my own musings on the genre, ranging from highlighting my favorites to exploring the quandaries authors and readers face. One perennial question for me is how much writers should stick to what is known and verified versus inventing details and incidents to add tension. Is there a point where authors cross the line from adding oomph to spreading irresponsible falsehoods?

I asked my favorite AI bot to give me a list of the most common “tropes” in historical fiction, and it led me to a wonderful blog by Cole Salao of TCK Publishing. He offers plenty to think about, and I’ll return to some of his points in blogs to come. Salao also provides a good basic definition of historical fiction: “The main characteristic . . . is that it is set in the past and features the social conditions, cultural atmosphere, mannerisms, and other details of the depicted time period. The story can be purely fictional, or a mix of historical and imaginary events.” As Salao points out, historical accuracy depends on the writer—some hold closely to the known facts while others reimagine them to craft more dramatic, relevant stories.

I struggled with this dilemma myself in The Queen’s Musician, my own debut novel which is set in Tudor England. My protagonist is Mark Smeaton, a young musician who was executed as a lover of Anne Boleyn. Not much is known about him, and historians (and everyone else) are still arguing over whether Henry VIII’s second queen was an adulteress or whether her sole crime was her failure to bear a son. To write my novel, I had to invent a life for Mark Smeaton and sift through conflicting explanations about why Anne Boleyn was targeted and condemned. I tried to stick to the general timeline as far as it is known, but even here, basic information is up in air. Experts disagree on Anne Boleyn’s date of birth, for example, and how many times she became pregnant. Historical records show that Mark Smeaton confessed to adultery with the Queen, and he has sometimes been depicted as cowardly or a libertine. But today we know much more about the phenomenon of false confessions and class bias. I’ve incorporated these contemporary insights into my characterization.

Like millions of others, I’ve long been intrigued by Anne Boleyn and the Tudors. The family’s 118-year rule has inspired dozens of novels (not to mention plays, films, and TV serials). But in this blog, I’ll cover books depicting societies around the globe and across the gamut of time. This coming year, I’ve set a goal to read historical fiction by authors from every continent (although I’ll have make do with a novel set in Antarctica). In Historical Magic, my aim is to delve into places, eras, and perspectives that are new to me. I hope you’ll join me on my journey.