Some exciting hist fic news (but not the news you'd expect)
Looking back to my very first, toe-curling draft and some exciting historical fiction-related news
The difficult art of letter writing
My very first, absolutely dreadful, terrible awful draft of what became The Third Letter started off as an epistolary novel. Until I realised that, although I love a good epistolary novel, my version of one was not good in any shape or form and that it wasn’t something I could pull off across the entire story.
I did stick with a number of letters in the middle of the novel, however, because – as you might guess from the title – letters are central to the plot. And when you have a handful of the key male characters leaving to fight, you don’t have much choice other than to have letters from them to keep their storylines going.
In the spirit of this, I thought I’d share a handful books (mostly historical fiction, of course) that use letters or diary entries to good effect.
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Les Liaisons dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
Diary of an Ordinary Woman by Margaret Forster
Dracula by Bram Stoker
The Pillow Book by Sei Shōnagon
Okay, I managed to sneak a non-fiction one in there. Did you spot it? I have not revisted 84 Charing Cross Road, but we once had parts of it read to us in school assembly over the course of a week. I clearly remember going to my first class of the day in an emotional state on the final day of the readings.
Do you have any favourite epistolary novels? Or are they not your style at all?
What I’ve been up to recently
April was the month when I got sidelined by a sudden and large amount of client work (positive because, well, someone wants to pay me; but negative, because, not enough hours to write) and then a lingering bout of the ‘flu. But I still managed to get a couple of thousand words of Codename Charlotta on the page.
The month was also broken up by Easter and a brief trip to the UK with one former colleague to visit another. Three days of visiting Oxford, taking walks in the hills, eating and drinking and chatting. And a lot of cheese. About as much cheese as I could stuff into my face.
The other thing I’ve been up to recently – and something I’ve been keeping under my hat for a couple of months now – is that I’ve been commissioned to write a roundup of new historical fiction for The Washington Post. And my article is now out!
I have been so excited about this project and I’ve veered between wanting to shout it out to the world and not truly believing that it’s real.
I’ve always found it thrilling seeing my name in print1. And now even more so for my name and my words to be printed in a US daily newspaper. It has been a series of “pinch me” moments since I first spoke to the Book World editor at the Post.
And to write about my absolute favourite genre of fiction? It’s a dream come true ❤️
On the bedside table
The Wedding People – Alison Espach: Who would have thought a story about a woman accidentally gatecrashing a wedding when she checks into a hotel to kill herself would be a laugh-out-loud read? Somehow Alison Espach manages to navigate this dark topic and make it tender and funny.
The Trees – Percival Everett: I’m listening to this story about a spate of mysterious murders in Mississippi and beyond in which the victims seem to have ominous links to the lynchings of Black men in decades past. Percival Everett has created an incredible cast of characters in a novel that somehow manages to not be depressing (well, not throughout, let’s say), despite its subject matter. The Trees has long been on my TBR and I am so glad that I finally got around to picking up the audiobook.
The Housekeeper’s Secret – Iona Grey: This is a (belated) Christmas present, which was delivered two hours after we headed to the airport to fly back home, so I didn’t get my hands on it until last week. The wait has been a torment as I love Iona Grey’s first two novels, Letters to the Lost and The Glittering Hour.
I’m sure I didn’t consciously choose two books with subject matters that could leave you feeling down, but somehow don’t. But both are stories I’d recommend.
As usual, though, you can check out what is on my TBR or pick up copies of my recent reads at Bookshop UK (affiliate link) if any have piqued your interest.
If you’ve enjoyed reading this and like what I write, why not tap the heart up there at the top or down at the end of this email ❤️, drop me a comment, or share it with someone else you think might also like it.
And if you want to help keep me powering along, you can buy me a virtual coffee - always keeps me going ☕
Until the next time,
Even when I worked for a trade publication, back in the early days of my career, I was excited to see my name listed in the sub-editors column of the masthead.
I’ve toyed with the idea of writing an epistolary novel, and after reading Shelley’s Frankenstein, I recognised a great framework for how it could be written and, who knows, maybe one day I’ll get it done—
Great article 🙌
I loved 'The Trees' and 'James' and now I'm listening to 'I am Not Sidney Poitier'. can recommend all of them