Take it away Starla.
Weaving in Historical Elements
I love writing all kinds of genres and sub-genres of romance, including stories based in different time periods. Creating characters that feel “real” to a reader is an art. Establishing a believable setting for those characters, with conflicts also believable for the period, is a challenge. When a writer manages to pull it all together, the story can be a special gift to the readers. And when readers and reviewers appreciate the author’s hard work that is a gift to the author.
I really enjoyed writing my three medieval stories (Their Lady Gloriana, Maggie Mine, and its sequel The Great Scottish Devil) but they were a trial at times. The medieval period has always attracted me. I admit that the movies involving such a hard time and the romances that greatly soften the realities of living back then are what I enjoy. And I admit that I would never have wanted to live in those difficult days. But I write fiction and the worlds I create are acceptable to me and to my readers.
So what kind of historical elements are acceptable and make a story believable and enjoyable? A reader doesn’t want to read about some of the true hardships knights faced. She wants to read and visualize in her mind the powerful, handsome, buff knight riding proudly on his destrier and leading his men to battle or to whatever the story involves. She doesn’t want to know that many of the armored knights fell off their horses, couldn’t get up without assistance, and that a lot of them drowned in creeks and rivers because of the bulky armor. What readers want and rightly expect are simple details that give the sense of the setting and character particulars for the period.
The following are some setting examples from The Great Scottish Devil:
For a second he simply looked at her, struggling to draw in yet another breath. Slowly, he turned his head and she watched him raise his face to the skies laden with heavy gray clouds, appearing to study them. He shivered against the air chilled this mid-August morn. Then he looked around at their surroundings, at the grassy area on this northern slope of the Grampian Mountains, at the spattering of low shrubs, birches, and patches of purple heather. He’d been so determined to cross over these highest mountains in Scotland as quickly as possible. He’d seemed oddly anxious to head toward the villages in the Highlands they visited as tinkers this time of year. It should have taken them longer to ride. She’d wondered what had driven him so hard this trip.
As he rode with Sir Douglas at his side down the final slope of the Grampian Mountains, Brodie breathed a sigh of relief. The fifty men who traveled with them were a ways behind. Yet the sounds of so many hooves, so many heavily breathing horses carried to him even from this distance.
The following are some character details from The Great Scottish Devil:
He squinted at the sudden brightness as the sun rested high in the sky. The swirling gray clouds of the early morn had drifted away and now it was hotter. Sweat trickled down his back beneath his shirt. A warm breeze passed over him, fluttering the shoulder-length hair that he should have tied back.
His thoughts wandered to Urquhart and what awaited him there: many people who would be disappointed that he returned still without his memories. Still, they could not be any more disappointed than he. His head throbbed with the now familiar headache that plagued him whenever he tried to think about his past. He reached up to rub his forehead and caught sight of a tinker’s wagon at the foot of the hill they were going down.
The boy blinked and tears sparkled in his eyes. Slender shoulders shuddered beneath the dirt-dusted white shirt, and then straightened. A pouty lower lip trembled for but an instant. Then anger spread across a face that appeared too delicate for even a young boy.
“I’m not a thief!” the boy protested. He had the gall to glower at Brodie, to continue holding the ridiculously small weapon out in defense.
“’Tis a lass!” Douglas said in shock.
Brodie, too, had surmised that from the “boy’s” all-too-feminine voice, more so when the “boy’s” chest had thrust out in anger. There was no mistaking the swell of plump breasts shoving against the front of the shirt. It took him a second to come to terms with the surprising discover; it took another second to get beyond his surprise and back to his fury.
A good historical story will also include a limited amount of language used at the time. It is important to weave in certain terms that might have been used, a sense of the uniqueness of expressions common to the time period, and maybe a hint of an accent. But it is also important not to overdue all of this. Reading oddly spelled words or being constantly bombarded with unfamiliar language can frustrate a reader and pull them from a story. The key is to give only a flavor of the various elements of the historical period.
The following are some language details from The Great Scottish Devil:
To his annoyance, Douglas chuckled behind him. “I dinna think the lass has seen a mon in a kilt ‘ere. Or what a mon doesna wear under a kilt.” He chuckled again.
Disgusted, Brodie strode toward the lass, who was now scooting back toward the wagon, still brandishing the useless dirk. He pointed with his sword at the clearly dead man. “If ye killed him, ye will die here as well.”
Starla writes in many sub-genres of romance, but her heart really belongs to cowboys. There is just something about a man in worn denim jeans, a hard muscled body from everyday physical labor, scuffed boots, and a Stetson worn low and oh so sexily.
When she isn’t writing or struggling with social media, she hangs out with her sister making small memory quilts or scrapbooking. Or she’s traveling somewhere: to conferences, for vacation (research trips, she likes to call them), or going to visit her daughter, who often travels with her. And she reads every spare minute she has. So many books to read, so little time.
Starla lives in the Midwestern part of the United States with her accountant husband. Yes, there are times when he fits the “boring accountant” image, but many times when he does not. After so many long years of marriage, she is still in love with the man she married at nineteen. Okay, she wishes he still had his beautiful blond hair instead of being basically bald now. But would she trade him just because of that? No way!
When she isn’t writing or struggling with social media, she hangs out with her sister making small memory quilts or scrapbooking. Or she’s traveling somewhere: to conferences, for vacation (research trips, she likes to call them), or going to visit her daughter, who often travels with her. And she reads every spare minute she has. So many books to read, so little time.
Starla lives in the Midwestern part of the United States with her accountant husband. Yes, there are times when he fits the “boring accountant” image, but many times when he does not. After so many long years of marriage, she is still in love with the man she married at nineteen. Okay, she wishes he still had his beautiful blond hair instead of being basically bald now. But would she trade him just because of that? No way!
tarla writes in many sub-genres of romance, but her heart really belongs to cowboys. There is just something about a man in worn denim jeans, a hard muscled body from everyday physical labor, scuffed boots, and a Stetson worn low and oh so sexily.
When she isn’t writing or struggling with social media, she hangs out with her sister making small memory quilts or scrapbooking. Or she’s traveling somewhere: to conferences, for vacation (research trips, she likes to call them), or going to visit her daughter, who often travels with her. And she reads every spare minute she has. So many books to read, so little time.
Starla lives in the Midwestern part of the United States with her accountant husband. Yes, there are times when he fits the “boring accountant” image, but many times when he does not. After so many long years of marriage, she is still in love with the man she married at nineteen. Okay, she wishes he still had his beautiful blond hair instead of being basically bald now. But would she trade him just because of that? No way!
When she isn’t writing or struggling with social media, she hangs out with her sister making small memory quilts or scrapbooking. Or she’s traveling somewhere: to conferences, for vacation (research trips, she likes to call them), or going to visit her daughter, who often travels with her. And she reads every spare minute she has. So many books to read, so little time.
Starla lives in the Midwestern part of the United States with her accountant husband. Yes, there are times when he fits the “boring accountant” image, but many times when he does not. After so many long years of marriage, she is still in love with the man she married at nineteen. Okay, she wishes he still had his beautiful blond hair instead of being basically bald now. But would she trade him just because of that? No way!
tarla writes in many sub-genres of romance, but her heart really belongs to cowboys. There is just something about a man in worn denim jeans, a hard muscled body from everyday physical labor, scuffed boots, and a Stetson worn low and oh so sexily.
When she isn’t writing or struggling with social media, she hangs out with her sister making small memory quilts or scrapbooking. Or she’s traveling somewhere: to conferences, for vacation (research trips, she likes to call them), or going to visit her daughter, who often travels with her. And she reads every spare minute she has. So many books to read, so little time.
Starla lives in the Midwestern part of the United States with her accountant husband. Yes, there are times when he fits the “boring accountant” image, but many times when he does not. After so many long years of marriage, she is still in love with the man she married at nineteen. Okay, she wishes he still had his beautiful blond hair instead of being basically bald now. But would she trade him just because of that? No way!
When she isn’t writing or struggling with social media, she hangs out with her sister making small memory quilts or scrapbooking. Or she’s traveling somewhere: to conferences, for vacation (research trips, she likes to call them), or going to visit her daughter, who often travels with her. And she reads every spare minute she has. So many books to read, so little time.
Starla lives in the Midwestern part of the United States with her accountant husband. Yes, there are times when he fits the “boring accountant” image, but many times when he does not. After so many long years of marriage, she is still in love with the man she married at nineteen. Okay, she wishes he still had his beautiful blond hair instead of being basically bald now. But would she trade him just because of that? No way!
Book Title: The Great Scottish DevilAuthor: Starla Kaye
Genre: Medieval Romance
Publisher: Blushing Books
Publication Date: June 1, 2012
Format: eBook, Kindle, Nook
Book Blurb:
Annabel Henderson’s life has fallen apart yet again, worse this time than before. She lost her beloved younger brother, then her mother a year ago, and now her father. His dying words talk of his regrets; warn her of someone or something that he was unable to fully explain. Confused, grieving, she is left alone in the Scottish Highlands to deal with her father’s body and wondering how she can continue on with her family’s tinker trade traveling from village to village. She must do it, for it is the only life she knows. In her heart, though, she yearns for a man to love her and to help her with the trade. Instead her first encounter is with the famed Great Scottish Devil returning to his home of Urquhart. The Devil is more annoying and demanding than he is handsome. How dare he think to take charge of her life!
Brodie Durward isn’t sure he can deal with another problem in his life. He’d barely survived being taken prisoner and seriously wounded in the final battle of the Crusades, left with the loss of his memories. Still struggling with that, he had to go to England and save his sister Maggie from being hung. All he wants now is to return to his family’s holding of the Castle Urquhart. He hopes the once familiar surroundings and being around his clan will help him completely heal and regain his memories. Then he and his men run across a young lad apparently trying to steal the valuables off a dead man. Such a travesty can’t be tolerated! But the “lad” isn’t a boy at all. The supposed bandit is a tiny sprite of a woman, far too pleasing to the eye for his comfort, and furious at having been called a thief. And then she tries to refuse to travel with him under his protection, claiming she doesn’t need it, doesn’t wish to go in that direction. He has no patience for her foolishness. She will go with him!
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