It is my pleasure to share a guest post by author Beth M. Caruso, who gives details about...
Handling
Historical Facts When Writing Historical Fiction
by
Beth M. Caruso
How to handle historical facts and
put them into a compelling story has been a debate within the genre of those
who write historical fiction for a few years and takes place even among those
who write straight history. I’ll be honest with you, if this is a genre that
you aspire to write, it can get quite messy and fraught with many opposing and
passionate opinions.
You’re challenged to research a
time period and characters where there is either little information to go on or
possibly an overwhelming amount. If it’s a faraway past like the setting of my
novel, One of Windsor, that tells the story of Alice Young, America’s
first witch-hanging victim in seventeenth century colonial America, it can be a
challenge and indeed it was a challenge to overcome the scarcity of
documentation pertaining to Alice. My second novel, The Salty Rose, also
took place in the seventeenth century. The research materials were sparse at
times, because some of the records have still not been translated from the original
Dutch documents. On the other hand, if your novel is set in the twentieth
century, you may be overwhelmed with a plethora of research and be forced to
winnow the information you find.
It’s essential to do the research
if you’re going to write in this genre. People who read historical fiction want
not only to be entertained, but also want to learn something new about history.
Therefore, the background and setting have to be correct for the time period
you’re writing in.
Nothing is worse than incorrect
details such as a character picking raspberries in New England in spring. That
alone drives me crazy enough to put a book down. Attention to detail about the
setting is important: what they ate, drank, what they wore, the timing of
vegetation during the year and the crops they planted are all fine details that
should be researched to make historical fiction be more authentic.
In the past, that was where
historical fiction stopped. It normally took place with invented characters who
were simply put into a historical period. However, more recent writing in this
genre takes on actual people from the past and makes them characters in the
novel. The challenge for the writer is to fit a story into the known facts
about a real person. This can make a novel come alive, be edgy, and seem more
pertinent, but it can also be fraught with pitfalls.
When you’re dealing with a real
person as your subject, you will get many opinions from people who may love or
hate your work because of who they think that historical person should be. In
general, most authors agree that in this situation, one should stick to the
known facts AND it is fair game to create in the blank spaces between what is historically
known. With literary invention, our imaginations can capitalize on what is
still mystery. For some readers who don’t understand that historical fiction is
both historical and fiction, it can be harder for them to grasp these concepts.
At some point, you cannot worry about it. You will never please everyone,
especially if it is someone who has thousands of ancestors! Embrace your
passion and imagine you are back in time witnessing your story as it happened!
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The Salty Rose
by Beth M. Caruso
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GENRE: Historical Fiction
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BLURB:
Marie
du Trieux, a tavern keeper with a salty tongue and a heart of gold, struggles
as she navigates love and loss, Native wars, and possible banishment by
authorities in the unruly trading port of New Amsterdam, an outpost of the
Dutch West India Company.
In New England, John
Tinker, merchant and assistant to a renowned alchemist and eventual leader of
Connecticut Colony, must come to terms with a family tragedy of dark
proportions, all the while supporting his mentor’s secret quest to find the
Northwest Passage, a desired trading route purported to mystically unite the
East with the West.
As the lives of Marie
and John become intertwined through friendship and trade, a search for justice
of a Dutch woman accused of witchcraft in Hartford puts them on a collision
course affecting not only their own destinies but also the fate of colonial
America.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EXCERPT
“Marie. Enough of this! Go roll out another barrel to tap.
We are already out. These ravenous sailors will drink us dry with their
unending thirst. And, think about minding your manners with the wealthy man at
the window table,” Mr. Couwenhoven scolded me as he glared in the man’s
direction.
The tavern was humming with activity, encased in a cloud of
smoke and overflowing with not only beer but also boisterous laughter that
night.
I’d rebuffed a lecherous traveler again. My mistake was that
he was a repeat customer and one who had a little wealth to spread around.
“What shall I do? Let the letch grab me? You ask too much of
me,” I retorted. “Certainly, you understand I must protect myself against some
of these animals,” I emphasized.
Mr. Van Couwenhoven was a hideous man, only thinking of his
coin.
“Listen to me quite well, you little Walloon,” he retorted
as his chubby face reddened with anger. “I’m giving you a chance to have a
living, but you will end mine if you are not a little more lenient with my good
customers! I don’t care if you unleash that sharp tongue of yours with the
foolish rogue sailors who are too drunk to remember what you say, but you will
not chase away my better clientele. You understand me? Be polite!” he yelled.
I looked at Van Couwenhoven’s son, Pieter, nodding as he
raised his eyebrows at me, motioning to the back.
“Yes. For you, I can be ever so lenient,” I said under my
breath, staring into Pieter’s bright blue eyes.
My heart raced a little at the chance to meet Pieter in the
back. It was hard for me to take my eyes off his handsome cherub-like face, a
face that hid the personality of a little rascal.
Mr. Van Couwenhoven ordered me to the storeroom one more
time, not wanting to lose business.
“Marie, I said to go get another barrel of beer from the
back. Do as I say!” Mr. Van Couwenhoven ordered me.
As mad as he was, he still liked me. It was worse when his
wife was around too. The husband was greedy but only resented me if I got in
the way of profits. His wife was another story. I knew she’d despise me once
she got wind of my budding romance with her son.
Amazon
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Award-winning
author, Beth M. Caruso, is passionate to discover and convey important and
interesting stories of women from earlier times. She recently won the literary
prize in Genre Fiction (2020) from IPNE (Independent Publishers of New England)
for her most recent novel The Salty Rose: Alchemists, Witches & A Tapper In
New Amsterdam (2019). The Salty Rose is Beth’s second historical novel and
explores alchemy in early colonial times, an insider’s view of the takeover of
the Dutch colony of New Netherland, and the Hartford Witch Panic with
information she gathered from previous and ongoing research.
Beth’s first
historical novel is One of Windsor: The Untold Story of America’s First Witch Hanging (2015), a novel that tells the tale of Alice ‘Alse’ Young and the
beginnings of the colonial witch trials. She based the story on original
research she did by exploring early primary sources such as early Windsor land
records, vital statistics, and other documents. She lives in Connecticut with
her family. Beth kayaks and gardens to unwind.
Website
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