World Building and History

With the latest Christine Blevins novel out as well as the latest Christine Trent, I find myself swept up in different historical periods. I am fascinated by the wealth of stories that come into the world, born from the hard work and the passion of their authors.

In The Turning of Anne Merrick, Christine Blevins’ writes about colonial America and about women’s experiences as they build a new country. In By the King’s Design, Christine Trent writes of Regency England. Her heroine does not live in the Regency England where my characters live, a fantasy of handsome brooding men, silk gowns, and lustrous ballrooms. Annabelle Stirling is a draper who is solidly middle class, a shopkeeper who works for the Prince Regent, but who also sees the plight of the poor, people who are thrown into desperate suffering by the Corn Laws and a bad harvest.

I adore my own genres of 12th century historical fiction and romantic Regency England, but it is a thrill to dive into the worlds created by my peers, beautifully researched books that bring the past to life. I am grateful that with each new novel that comes into print, another world is born. As a writer and a reader, I am a world-hopper, constantly looking for the next book to kick back and enjoy.