I’m sure you’ve heard that famous quote attributed to Sigmund Freud, “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.” I don’t know the context of the quote, in fact I’ve seen suggestions that it isn’t even a legitimate Freud quote.
Read more on With apologies to Freud — make sure you know your cigars…
I highly recommend that you take a look at this “Audie L. Murphy Memorial Website,” for a full account of this remarkable man.
As a follow-up on my last post, I felt compelled to direct you to a wealth of information about this remarkable man, who was not just one of my personal favorites in movies I saw as a kid, but more importantly was a true American hero. Personally, I am “anti-war” almost to the point of being a pacifist — ALMOST. But you cannot ignore the atrocities of World War II and the gallantry of this incredible man and the role he played in that war.
Read more on I highly recommend you take a look at this Audie Murphy site…
I’m reading a well-written adventure novel right now by Stephen Hunter and want to share some thoughts about fictionalizing real-life characters. One of the characters he created in the book made me think about the matter.
Read more on Some thoughts about fictionalizing real-life public figures…
I enjoy reading — and have tried my hand at writing — historical novels. For many years, as those of you know who’ve been around this site much, I fiddled with a couple of novels set in the American West of the 1800s. I’ve not yet finished one, but I have three that I’ve started and tucked away in virtual file cabinets over the years.
Read more on More about doing research when writing fiction…
One of the best resources I’ve found for the sort of research I’ve used when writing historical fiction is a set of books that were published in the 1980s and ’90s by Writers Digest Books. This was a series of dictionary-like books called “The Writer’s Guide to Everyday Life …” followed by whatever period of history or historical niche the book covered. I only own one volume in the series, “The Writer’s Guide to Everyday Life in the 1800s.” Other volumes include ” … in Renaissance England,” ” … from Prohibition Through Word War II,” ” … in Regency and Victorian England,” and I believe several others.
Read more on Writing Historical Fiction Part 3: Good sources are everywhere…
A few years ago I was taking a graduate level course in Mexican history and ran onto the perfect idea for a historical novel set in 1785-86 in the region which became New Mexico and involved a Spanish governor, Juan Baptista de Anza, and the Comanche Indians.
If you’ve written a novel or ever studied novel writing, you know the term “back story” and how important that is to the development of the novel. The “back story” is the background information about characters, events, and locations which rarely makes it directly into your novel, but which you and your reader need to know to make the novel work.
Read more on Writing Historical Fiction Part 1: How much research is enough?…
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