Bafflin’ Island: The Mystery of Frobisher’s Ore – English privateer Martin Frobisher commanded three mining voyages to what is now Canada in the 1570s. His personal assayers found such persuasive evidence of gold that his ships hauled tons of ore back to England only to discover it was worthless. Were Frobisher’s assayers incompetent or frauds?
I’m getting critiques back about the first 50 pages of my second draft. Responses are mostly positive: definitely still needs work but it’s evidently it’s a compelling read.
Most of my critique partners aren’t historical fiction enthusiasts so I find their input valuable re: possible cross-genre appeal. One even said that though she’s not a history buff she’d read my book for the alchemy and magic alone.
I never thought I read historical fiction as a child, at least in the “pure” Dorothy Dunnett/Philippa Gregory/Margaret George mold. I preferred “real history” (I cringe at my childhood snobbiness). But after this discussion it occurred to me: I was reading histfic all along. I just found it in other genres.
Take Anne Rice. I was a teenage goth so of course I read and reread her Vampire Chronicles and Mayfair Witches series. Rice typically falls on the horror/fantasy but Lestat and co. survive through pre-revolutionary France and antebellum New Orleans; the Mayfair family moves from England through to the Caribbean and thence to the New World over five centuries.
My carefully preserved Anne Rice novels from yonks ago. Many hours spent in line to get them signed.
Octavia Butler’s Kindred also stuck with me. Time travel puts this sobering read squarely in the sci-fi box but Butler’s nuanced depiction of slavery in the American south suggests painstaking research of the type associated with the best historical fiction.
Kage Baker’s Company series goes everywhen: Tudor England (Baker taught Elizabethan English as a second language and it shows) to 17th century Spanish California to the 19th century old west and elsewhere…with time-traveling, historical-artifact-saving cyborgs.
M. J. Rose’s Seduction is a fictional account of Victor Hugo’s seances in search of his daughter’s ghost. Witch of Painted Sorrows involves fin de siècle Parisian occultism and possession.
Deborah Harkness’ All Souls Trilogy has it all: witches, vampires, werewolves, and time travel
The sci fi and fantasy genres jumped on serialized fiction awhile back, but with Julian Fellowes’s Belgravia and SerialBox’s Whitehall it seems historical fiction is finally getting in on the act. Looking forward to both and seeing if this presentation format proves popular.
Hadn’t heard of Carlo Gesualdo until news about a one-man play about his life popped up in my Google alerts. Pity it’s not local – Gesualdo’s messy story of musical genius, vicious murder, and alleged sorcery is fantastic storytelling fuel!
Haven’t got much news this week. Rewrites continue with the odd bit of research, and I spent much of the past weekend on the fencing strip.
So I thought I’d share a few of the books I’ve been reading (and wanting to read):
The Witch Who Came in From the Cold – I find the episodic format of SerialBox’s offerings positively addictive, and this series has two things I love: Cold War spycraft and magic.
A Day of Fire and A Year of Ravens are both collaborative novels by the Historical Fiction Author’s Co-op and both take historical events where we know the outcome (Pompeii is destroyed, Boudicca is defeated) and still create so much tension that you can’t put them down. They do this with characters so skillfully drawn that you care passionately about their fates.
David Bowie Is – I’ve never been a diehard fan but I was always impressed by Bowie’s ability to re-invent himself over and over and over again. This catalog accompanied a V&A touring exhibit of his infinitely varied career. My main interest is, of course, the costumes.
Doreen Valiente: Witch, Pan’s Daughter: The Magical World of Rosaleen Norton, and Wormwood Star: The Magical Life of Marjorie Cameron – it seems most histories of 19th-early 20th century magick revolve around men: Crowley, Regardie, Parsons. Only in the past month have learned that women were also prominent in this tradition. I gather these names are familiar to modern pagans but they’re news to me and I look forward to reading these…later. Smells like a potential research rabbit hole I can ill afford right now!
Nazi occult books found in Czech National Library depot – Himmler’s private collection of books on witchcraft have evidently been in storage since the 1950s. Initially reported in a tabloid, this story seems to be getting more reputable coverage as the days go on.
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