Howdy from the snow-dusted mountain of Joanna.
The Ask A Wench question for November is:
"If you were writing a Historical Romance set in an unusual place and time -- and you didn't have to worry about sales -- where would you choose and when and why?"
Mary Jo has not only thought of writing about some of these exotic places. She's done it.
As a kid in the classroom, I used to gaze at the map racks hanging from the blackboard, and I was particularly interested in the vast, empty tracts of Central Asia. What was there? How interesting it would be to visit! So when I started to write, I thought it would be really cool to write a book set in Central Asia.
Oh, wait! I did. The book is called Silk and Secrets, and it was loosely based on a real rescue mission to Bokhara in the 1840s by Dr. Joseph Wolff, an eccentric Anglican missionary. Wonderful material in his memoirs. The last in that trilogy, Veils of Silk, was set in India, with adventure and mystery and romance. But India isn't quite so far off the beaten path, historical romance wise.
Well, China could be interesting. So very different from Western Europe, with an ancient civilization and an aura of mystery. Err…, I wrote that in The China Bride, with a Chinese/Scottish heroine and an English hero with an explorer's heart.
What about Indonesia? That vast, complex archipelago of islands with such a mix of cultures and languages and religions. The far distant source of exotic and marvelous spices, and more.
Ooop, I wrote that one, too, in The Bartered Bride. I guess I've been really lucky to have editors who were willing to indulge my storytelling wanderlust!
Nicola says,
As a teenager I loved Dinah Dean’s historical romances set in Imperial Russia during the Napoleonic Wars and I’ve always thought I’d quite like give that period a go. There was also a book called Valentina set in Poland and Russia in the same period that fascinated me. The closest I’ve got is writing a books set in the Norwegian Arctic in the early 19th century – Whisper of Scandal – which isn’t that close but had some Russian history in it. I am drawn to "the north" in various shapes, forms and eras so perhaps I'll tackle a Viking story one day!
Mostly the historical periods that appeal to me aren’t outrageously unusual or different though. The Dark Ages and the early medieval period in England, the English Civil Wars… My next book is partially set in 17th century Holland and I’m very grateful that my publishers were happy to go along with that as it is out of the ordinary and it was exciting to be able to explore that.
Anne is another who’s wandered off the beaten track a little. She says,
I've always had a fondness for the more exotic settings for historicals—I grew up reading books set in all kinds of places and time periods, and I loved the variety. I remember when I first read Mary Jo Putney's Veils of Silk I thought, I'd love to write a book like that, set in the far-flung outposts of Empire. I loved Kipling's Kim as a kid, and I was also a huge fan of Madeline Brent, whose heroines are girls of English background often lost in childhood in some foreign corner of the British Empire. Utterly my cup of tea. Alas, editors soon taught me that wasn't what they wanted to publish, and I was told to stick to English-set regency-era stories. I did manage to extend those boundaries a little; my Honorable Thief starts off in Batavia (Indonesia) though most of the story takes place in London, and I've since set stories in France (Perfect Stranger), Egypt (To Catch a Bride) and Spain (Bride By Mistake) — though mostly they start and end in England.
I've always wanted to write an Australian historical, but again, this idea was firmly hit on the head by editors. In fact the opening scene and a thread of the plot of His Captive Lady was from a story I'd originally started and set in Australia but it was rejected unread on the grounds that Australian history was not of interest to international readers. I'm still certain though that it would be a cracker of a story, and maybe one day I'll write that story and publish it just for me.
Like Nicola, I also have a yen for writing a Russian-set story. No doubt that was partly inspired by a story I read as a young girl, called The Troika Belle, but I also have collected original sources of English people who lived at the Russian court in the early 10th century, and it's fascinating. So maybe one day . . .
Jo joins us to say,
I can't think of a time or place I've a real yen to write, other than the ones I already do. I've always felt lucky that my writing pleasure mostly syncs with reader tastes. If I didn't have to worry about how to use my writing time I'd probably write some fantasy on the side, but that's off on a tangent.
Andrea says,
I have always been an armchair traveler and love the idea of exotic settings. I did manage to do a trad Regency set mostly in Russia (The Storybook Hero) but would love to do one set at the Imperial Court of St. Petersburg during the early 1900s. I’ve also always wanted to do a book set during the Third Crusade, which would be fascinating to research. The Italian Renaissance was such rich possibilities too . . . ideas and setting are never a problem! Like a magpie, I see all these shiny ideas and gather them all up to put in my desk drawer. Now, if only there were 48 hours in a day!
Susan has several places and times.
If the market and readership were non-issues and we could create stories that might otherwise never see the light of day, what would I write for fun? What fascinates me most are medieval and ancient settings, so for starters I'd play more deeply in those areas. I've colored outside the lines a little already by writing mainstream historical fiction set in 11th century Scotland, and I'd love to expand to Viking, Irish and Saxon settings.
There are so many time periods and places I'd love to write about if I had the chance and especially the luxury of time -- medieval France and The Netherlands, and Upstate New York during the French & Indian Wars (I grew up just a moccasin's throw from the setting of the Last of the Mohicans, and cut my historian's baby teeth on the rich local history). And if I had scads of time for research immersion and plenty of time and energy to write prolifically, I'd set novels in ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, even feudal Japan. There's a contemporary or two in me as well, if the stories link back to ancient cultures, and there's more than one ghost story on the back burner too. Oh if I only had the time (and the ideal market existed) to write stories in all the areas that fascinate me. . . .
For me, Joanna,
Sometimes I think I’d like to write fantasy. Something set in an alternate world. A place with magic of many kinds. Travel in time. Travel through realities ...
Historical Romance requires the discipline of getting stuff right. As a historical writer, I’m constrained by what was.
But Fantasy ... there we can shape the world to our desires.
What about you? If you were telling stories set in a particular world, what world would you choose?
I'd like to give away an audio recording of one of my books. Your choice. The recordings are by the most excellent Kirsten Potter and I recommend them wholeheartedly.