Place names are full of history, so they’re a valuable tool for the historical fiction writer. They can be full of stories too, and understanding what place names mean can give real insights into what somewhere was like in the past: what the terrain was like, who lived there and what was important to them. Continue reading
Names are important. Especially for major characters, because you have to live with them for a whole book (or a series of three books). Getting the names right was important to me, so I didn’t just pluck them out of the air. Obviously, since I was retelling a story, I had some names to work with, but were they the right names, given that there were different versions of the same name? How did I go about deciding which one to use? And what about minor characters? Where did they come from? Were any of my characters real people? Continue reading
I envy fantasy writers because they get to make everything up. But what a lot of work that must be! On the other hand, writing a historical novel involves a lot of research. I, however, have the best of both worlds. I set my novel in a poorly documented historical past (Dark-age Scotland) so there’s not that much research I could do. And because so little is known, I get to make lots of stuff up. Continue reading