* “pace” in Executive Power by Vince Flynn

Flynn has a number of plots boiling simultaneously, with uncertain outcomes in each. He switches among these actions, leaving every scene with a hook.

This is standard fare for a thriller; how will it work for my Heretic sequel?

What makes it a more complicated approach in a historical novel is the number of names and other information (beyond plot), which without great care can confuse and discourage the reader.

“historical fiction” in Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett

·     Follett starts with a one page historical preface about the D-Day deception. He ends the preface … “That much is history. What follows is fiction. Still and all, one suspects something like this must have happened.”   ·     the high stakes of blowing the deception plan are emphasized several times … Godliman: “If one decent Abwehr agent in Britain gets to know about Fortitude … we could lose the fucking war.”    ·     But of course we know that D Day was successful and we didn’t lose the war. Follett creates tension about an event where we know the actual outcome, ie that Faber cannot succeed.   ·     Much like Forsythe in Day of the Jackal (published in the early 1970s, before Eye of the Needle), where we know that De Gaulle was not murdered by a sniper but are carried into great tension anyway.   ·     Perhaps the tension is maintained because we don’t know if Faber will fail, or if he will succeed but Hitler doesn’t act on his knowledge. However, we are told repeatedly, by Hitler himself, that he will be guided by Faber’s report.

“historical fiction” in Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini

·     The occasional insertion of the narrator’s voice into the story, and the reference to supposed actual documents (Andre-Louis’s Confession, playbills, newspaper articles) add historical credibility to the fictional adventure.   ·     M. La Tour d’Azyr is given the opportunity to explain why he murdered Andre-Louis’s friend, not from passion or anger, but from his perceived sense of political necessity, and he still believes he was correct in that action. “I had no grudge against M. de Vilmorin … I loathed the thing I did … I killed M. de Vilmorin as a matter of duty to my order.” When the Marquis goes on to say “it is impossible to blame any man for anything in this world … we are all of us the sport of destiny” … we can almost forgive him for doing what he had to do.

“historical fiction” in Silence in Hanover Close by Anne Perry

·     Perry provides the timing of the story by giving the date of the burglary to be re-investigated – “about three years ago – October seventeenth, 1884, to be precise.”   ·     “star-glazing” is explained … a burglar’s technique … what this does is add verisimilitude, and give the reader confidence that the author knows the period she is describing. this technique can be overdone, if it appears that the author is just showing off her knowledge.   ·     “Pitt knew of many great women … Waterloo … Hindu Kish … Blue Nile …” As I read this, I thought it was overdone   ·     Perry has Emily read real novels published in the time frame of the story. A good way to reinforce that time frame.   ·     Perry explains terms that a modern reader could not be expected to know. “In lavender means …slapbang, lurk, nethersken, flash’ouse, and paddyken … Pitt understood … he was referring to … useful? or excessive?

“historical fiction” in The Writer’s Chapbook edited by George Plimpton

·     John Irving … I begin by telling the truth, by remembering real people … but the people aren’t quite interesting enough … I exaggerate … soon I’m on my way to a lie  ·     Graham Greene … one never knows enough about characters in real life to put them into novels … one must imagine what one does not know, but what is imagined should be consistent enough with what is known so that it is believable to a knowledgeable reader, ie, someone who knows something about Lorenzo and his Florence

“historical fiction” in The Scarlet City by Hella Haasse

·     This frustrating historical novel, first published in Holland in 1952, opaquely treats the early 16th century: the machinations of papal and imperial forces have divided all of Italy into scheming factions, and mercenary soldiers gather to sack Rome. ·     Haasse ( In a Dark Wood Wandering ) chooses a nonlinear approach: various historical figures alternately narrate a series of complicated events. This structure bleeds the narrative of its intrinsic drama. ·     critical episodes invariably take place offstage, characters enter and exit abruptly, and the single-minded concerns of the individual protagonists overshadow the central action. ·     Those who don’t know much about this thorny patch of history will be thoroughly adrift; on the other hand, anyone familiar with even a snippet of the works of the figures incarnated here will chafe at Haasse’s shallow and simplistic interpretations. ·     50,000 first printing; BOMC and History Book Club alternates … extracted from a review on amazon.com by Publishers Weekly

As leaders war, intrigue, and shift alliances, the turmoil in Italy is reflected in each of the characters as they seek meaning in their lives. Like Italy itself, they can hope for no solution: at best they succeed in identifying the opposing forces that war within them. A brilliant picture of an uncertain age … extracted from a review on amazon.com by Library Journal

“historical fiction” in The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder

·     the specific date (Friday noon, July the 20th, 1714) and number of people who die (5) in the first sentence adds versimmilitude. (Stein)  ·     Wilder chooses to have a 20th century narrator for a story set in 1714. Why? What does this accomplish? Does it makes the story seem true?

comments on “historical fiction” by David Liss

·   Like pretty much everything else in the universe, historical fiction can be divided into two categories. ·   On the one hand are books that use real historical events and people as a springboard for the author’s imagined events and people. ·   On the other hand are novels that limit their scope to characters and events from the archives. ·   I strongly favor books of the first kind and shy away from the second. History — fortunately — tends to make for great history. Reality, however, does not necessarily make for great fiction. ·   Karen Essex’s Leonardo’s Swans fits firmly in the second category of rigidly historical fiction, and while it is in many ways accomplished, it also suffers from almost unavoidable drawbacks. ·   The novel centers on two sisters in late 15th-century Italy: Isabella and Beatrice d’Este of Ferrara … ·   Essex’s adherence to the archival record hinders the book in two principal ways. She sticks closely to known events but seems unwilling to engage with the issue of historical subjectivity. ·   Never do we feel as if we are inside the heads of pre-Enlightenment people. These are not alien women from another time; they are modern women in another time. ·   Similarly, as the novel becomes more focused on the political machinations of the era, it disconnects itself from the experiences of the two protagonists. ·   The historical Isabella and Beatrice may have been proximate to men who shaped some of the major events of Renaissance Italy, but they were rarely witness to them. Despite some excellent writing and archival work, the result feels sometimes like a history play in which characters come on stage to announce births, deaths and the outcomes of far-away battles. ·   Indeed, as Leonardo’s Swans marches along, driven by facts rather than the necessities of storytelling, the novel often takes on a strangely resigned tone, as if it’s just running out the clock.

** Taken from a review of Leonardo’s Swans by Karen Essex by David Liss … on amazon … from The Washington Post’s Book World. Liss is the author of A Conspiracy of Paper and other historical novels.

“historical fiction” in The Spooky Art by Norman Mailer

·   Ancient Evenings, a book about ancient Egypt, took 11years to write  ·   if a novelist can take actual people who are legendary figures and invent episodes for them that are believable, he has done something fine. Example: meeting between J.P. Morgan and Henry Ford in Doctorow’s Ragtime  ·  the trick in doing a historical novel is to digest your research (before writing your fiction based on it)  ·  in researching ancient Egypt, I felt I knew things that the average (historian) didn’t – not more about the details, but more about the underlying reasons for what was done  ·   both the historian and the novelist are engaged in writing fiction, making an attack on the possible nature of reality  ·   there is an inevitable slipperiness to most available facts  ·  when we think we are approaching reality, we are only writing a scenario to comprehend it, a hypothesis that seems correct until new evidence subverts it. Trust the evidence of your senses until they are revealed as inadequate, tricked or betrayed – then refine them   ·  history in Mailler’s view seems quite like the process of scientific discovery; I think he’s right.