historical fiction | Alison Morton Author

Being realistic in historical fiction

My guest today is Antoine Vanner is author of the Dawlish Chronicles, naval fiction set in the 1870s and 1880s. His latest novel, Britannia’s Gamble, was published last month (October 2017). Royal Navy officer Nicholas Dawlish is a fascinating character, very much in the mould of Hornblower, something that attracted me to Antoine’s novels. The […]

Charroux - a different litfest

You know the score – a crowd of writers keen to learn and interact and readers eager to adore the great ones, hurrying from pillar to post, same old topics thrashed over, expensive food, even more expensive drink, lots of undercurrents and exclusive events, groups and cliques and a carefully orchestrated bookshop with selected titles.

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2016 HNS Conference Oxford - a quick interim post

I’ve been away at the Historical Novel Society Conference where I was coordinating the indie table, helping with registration and problem solving, plus running a panel on indie publishing. There will be a report – I promise – but in the meantime, here are some photos…

HNS16 gala dinner. Left to right: Christina […]

What did I learn from preparing Book 2?

Last Thursday, I finished the edits on the second Roma Nova book, PERFIDITAS. SilverWood Books’ editor made some excellent recommendations and sparked off other ideas that I incorporated in the final, final edition. Good books go through many revisions and edits, but at last it was done.

So how was it for me?

1. Strange […]

The exotic Christina Courtenay ...

I’m delighted to welcome Christina Courtenay to my blog today. She’s currently Vice Chairman of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and a member of The Historical Novel Society. Her debut novel, Trade Winds, was short-listed for the RNA’s Pure Passion Award for Best Historical Fiction 2011. Her second novel, The Scarlet Kimono won Best Historical […]