Historical Fiction: Learning the Genre

Women on Ship (1800s)Historical Fiction is a genre that intrigues me. I was drawn to Regency and Victorian era historical fiction by my love of Jane Austen and her novels. In turn, this interest moved me into the science fiction crossover of Steampunk, a type of alternate history. The creation of a historical world is similar to the creation of a science fiction or fantasy one. Many times authors will use a past civilization to be the fuel for their own fantastical creation.

To get you started in the genre, I have listed a few sites that I have found helpful in learning the foundation of historical fiction. Let your curiosity move you through time and space and experience more of the human condition than what we live in present day. By learning of the past, perhaps we will see more of our future.

Historical Novel Society
This is an organization devoted to the historical novel. They are a collection of chapter houses throughout the United States and the UK that are supported by many online forums. The group sponsors an annual historical novel conference, hosts a contest for historical novels and short stories where the wear does win a monetary award along with recognition and offers reviews and other resources for the historical writer. Membership is $50 annually. If you are an aspiring writer of historical fiction, this may be a good place to establish yourself.

Queen Anne Boleyn
This forum website began as a new home for a closed group of Tudor reenactment from Facebook. Reenactment is not encouraged on Facebook and members found their accounts frozen from access. Another group that used the Game of Thrones theme had a similar problem. Both of these well-established groups merged into the Queen Anne Boleyn website where they could conduct their reenactments as they wished without the censure of Facebook. Soon more groups followed. Now the membership site is a wonderful resource for historical and alternate history writers, writing groups and more.

Meryton Press
Meryton Press is home to “A Happy Assembly”, a forum dedicated to fans of Jane Austen, a small press that publishes fan fiction of Jane Austen novels and a hub of writers that love regency era historical fiction. Join the happy assembly and read plenty of austen fanfiction and gain reviews of austen spin-offs you can find on Amazon.

Writing Historical Novels

A blog with a rotating staff of four, it is a place to read reviews of historical novels and other topics of interest. They accept a large number of guest writers, so the blog remains fresh and new.

A Writer of History

This is the historical novel blog of MK Todd. She gives advice on writing historical fiction as well as interviews with readers.

English History Authors

If you are looking for a source to learn more about English history by historical fiction writers who love all things British, look no further. This blog features the work of a small stable of historical fiction writers and serves not only as a place to read more about the subject, but as a promotional hub for the books written by the members.

History Refreshed

This blog by Susan Higginbotham delves into the craft of writing a historical novelist that focuses on late medieval and Tudor history. She brings up fascinating topics of discussion that all writers should consider as they develop their stories.

Austenprose

This blog is dedicated to all things Jane Austen. There are reviews of her classic novels, discussions about the author herself and a place to learn more about the multitude of Austen spin-off novels that are littering Amazon, Austen films that are engaging the modern movie scene and pop culture itself.

Reading the Past

This blog will lead you to sources about the historical fiction genre and includes book reviews and publishing news.

Stephie Smith

This is an amazing resource of links of historical resources for writers. Enter at your own risk. You will wander through this huge list of links for weeks and still not see the end of the information.

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