Writing Historical Fiction has some unique issues. (So does writing mysteries but those usually revolves around plot.) Conveying a compelling setting is one difficulty. The writer wants to make the reader feel the culture and the time period – without using the dreaded data dump. Descriptions must be seeded throughout the story like pepper grains, not lumped in a pile. And the descriptions of the clothing, the food, the buildings – they can’t stop the flow of the action. Believe me, this is hard. At best, the writer uses the setting in an organic manner. I wrapped my cloak around me against the cold rain – for example.

Second is the issue of characters. For example, in my latest book, In the Shadow of the Bull, Martis is fifteen. But that is just a child, right? As I discussed last week, age is relative. Even in this country, and not so long ago, girls were allowed to marry at fifteen – or even younger. Because girls married young, Martis knows she will be expected to marry in a few years. Her only escape is to follow the Virgin Goddess Artemis, and never marry.

Another challenge is culture. What language does the writer use? Language that was common not long ago is offensive now. While we may deplore that, it still asks a question: should a writer use language that was accurate to the time but offensive now? Any writer who sets a story in the past of the United States wrestles with this one.

Language ties in to the culture. In the past, and not a very distant past, a number of groups were marginalized. Writing a story in the 1950s South doesn’t mean that LBGTQ+ people didn’t exist, just that they were hiding. In Bronze Age Crete, current scholarship suggests a complicated structure of slavery. A child’s status might rest on where he or she was born rather than the status of the mother.

Finally, one of the most difficult issues to address is what the reader brings to the book. I have had disputes with readers about certain facts, despite verifying a fact with documentary proof. Some readers just know they are correct and will flame you for not agreeing with them. This is by far the most frustrating, especially since the writer does not know where these beliefs come from.

Outside of the usual difficulties of writing a book, (grammar, character development, plot, setting) the historical writer faces a raft of unique problems,