#HistFic May Day 10: 1. What's your favourite #HistFic book?

The Lions of Al-Rassan, a fictionalized story of El Cid, although that's simplifying it a lot.

#HistFicMay ~ 8
A reviewer thought Alec was like a mash-up of Atticus Finch, MASH's Hawkeye from MASH, & Top Gun's Maverick.🤣 Alec has Atticus' idealism, Hawkeye's mad operating skills, & Maverick's insecurity despite being a hotshot/friend who is like a brother.

After Roisin end in 1875, I wondered what happened next. Buried in the novel: a minor character moved in with a friend in NYC.

I began a novel with those two, starting in 1872. The stories intersected when they read about Roisin's end in the paper. A bit of a sequel. #HistFicMay

#HistFicMay - day 9 - Will has technically had two prequels already, having been present in A Wider World and Lady, in Waiting. He won't get a sequel, at least as such, but I'm planning a collection of short stories/novellas in my Tudor world and I never say never.

#HistFicMay Day 9 1. Would you give your MC a prequel/sequel? Why?

I wrote a supposed stand-alone. Then I wrote 7 sequels. Why? Because my character(s) wouldn’t stop talking to me.

Today for #HistFicMay - my main character is based on the Roman poet Ovid, a delightfully elusive person, whose ambiguous poetry carefully makes it difficult to guess at his feelings, even when he is declaring them in verse!

#HistFicMay - day 8 - Will Hawkins isn't based on anyone. He started as a minor character (I needed an annoying jailor for the MC in A Wider World), then gave him an overbearing father, and then I let my MC Robin get the better of him. I owe him this book, I really do.

This is an example of my 'other life' posts over on 🦋. The photos are mostly not mine, but illustrative from Wikimedia; full credit given in the alt text for each. But if you're interested in #nature notes and #birding , my 🦋link's in my bio.

#HistFicMay Day 8: 1. Who (if anyone) is your MC based on?

This is a quick answer: no one. Lena is completely herself.

#HistFicMay ~ 7

I tend to write self-destructing heroes, but as a trope, I like the redeemable villain. I'm a sucker for a good redemption arc no matter how it comes about.

#HistFicMay Day 7:
Self-destructing hero or redeemable villain? Redeemable villain. (See Druisius, MC#1 of Empress & Soldier. Except that he may also be a self-destructing hero...it's not that black and white.)

#HistFicMay :

Dinner with Róisín ('roe-SHEEN').

The feelings when you sat alone with your father in that gig, looking back, knowing you'd never see your home again?

How overwhelmed were you when you first set foot in New York? Did you imagine you'd survive?

#HistFicMay - day 6 - if I took Will to dinner, I'd probably try to talk him into standing up for himself and not letting the men in the shadows run his life. I'd also tell him that while his daddy *is* all that, he's not so bad himself. And to try harder with the ladies.

#HistFicMay Day 6: You take your MC to dinner - what do you talk about?

What she thought of the life I gave her, most likely. (Or how well I chronicled the life she led.)

Ovid was a 1st century Roman poet, notorious for love poetry that challenged the “family values” of the Augustan regime.

“He seems to have been a very good fellow; rather too fond of women; a flatterer and a coward; but kind and gentle and free from envy” Macaulay
#HistFicMay

#HistFicMay Day 5 - my most recent main character was Nathan Hale. I love this image of him created by Digital Yarbs 💕 Would you lay down your life for your friends? mybook.to/NathanHale #historicalfiction #biographicalfiction

Day 5 of #HistFicMay !
Mariner is a recent graduate of the Greenwich Hospital School, is from a long-established Aldeburgh family who is about to embark on a great seafaring adventure!
Mariner's story is based on my own ancestors, but I've combined a few for the sake of the story.

#HistFicMay - day 5 - my current MC is Will Hawkins, who first appeared in A Wider World, again in Lady, in Waiting, and waited patiently himself for 3 books to pass before he got his own. He's insecure but stronger than he realizes, and has some major daddy issues. I love him.

#HistFicMay Day 5: Introduce your MC. Well, I have 8 POV MCs, but Lena is the sole narrator in 3 books, & shares the last one. At the start of the series she's a fisherwoman who's never left her home village, young, naive, a little restless. In the last book, she's 54.

#HistFicMay Day 4

A favourite quote? I'm one of those terrible people who laughs at my characters' (and therefore my own) jokes! So here's one I like from the antics of 'Alan' the Joker in The Year We Lived...