Author Spotlight: Nancy Blanton

Categories: 17th century · Author SpotlightsTags: · · · · · · · · · 2 Comments

A finely crafted work of historical fiction transports the reader to another time. It isn’t just the physical details of daily life and the world around the characters which elevates the work from just being set in the past to practically being in the past. Those are definitely crucial. Dialogue is one of those secret ingredients that needs just the right touch. Not enough authenticity and the work feels too modern and general; too much, and most readers find it a hard slog to follow. Nancy Blanton is a historical fiction author who has just the right touch for crafting…

Giving voice to women of the past

Categories: Author SpotlightsTags: · · · · · · · · · 14 Comments

A recent interview by Dame Hilary Mantel, of Wolf Hall fame, has generated a number of discussions in the historical fiction community on how women have been portrayed in the past. Dame Mantel went on to say women writers who write about women in the past “can’t resist retrospectively empowering them.” The discussion got me thinking about Æthelflæd, daughter of King Albert of Wessex, who led an army of Mercians into Wales. I first learned about Æthelflæd by reading the novel To Be a Queen, written by Annie Whitehead. I loved her portrayal of Æthelflæd and found her to possess…

When did I become a pizza critic?

Categories: WritingTags: · · · · · · 12 Comments

I’ve been a life-long reader and can’t imagine anything more satisfying than curling up with a book and losing yourself in its pages. If I were a foodie, it would be equivalent of eating my way through five star restaurants. As a child of immigrant parents, I had to wait until the first grade before someone taught me how to read. Before then, I would look at books and pretend I knew how. My older cousin once called my bluff, and I made up some story on the spot to convince him. And so a writer was born. Imagine my…

Author Spotlight: Elaine Cougler

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It is my pleasure to introduce historical fiction Indie author, Elaine Cougler. Elaine is the author of The Loyalist’s Wife, The Loyalist’s Luck and her third book, The Loyalist Legacy, just came out. Elaine is a fellow Canadian whose trilogy covers the lives of British Loyalists from the American Revolution, beyond the  War of 1812 to the Rebellion of 1838. From these conflicts, Canada emerged as a nation. Join me in welcoming Elaine as she shares her thoughts on the writing process. Did you have any scene which was more difficult to write than the others? One that you pondered…

Storytelling makes us human

Categories: CreativityTags: · · · · · · 8 Comments

Have you ever wondered what makes us special? I recently watched a Ted Talk, by Yuval Noah Harari, What explains the rise of humans, where he explores the basic question about what makes us human. Chimpanzees are our closest relative, sharing 99% of our DNA, and yet we are as different to them as the sun is to the moon. Why? According to Harari, humans differ from other animals because we can cooperate in large numbers and with great flexibility. How do we do this? Through our imagination. Animals use their language to describe objective reality; in contrast, humans exist in a “dual reality” consisting…