Writing history
The joy of writing historical fiction is that much of the story is given to you by history. When I was writing my latest, Burke and the War of 1812, I didn’t have to invent reasons why Burke might be fighting in Canada: the War of 1812 was a real thing and British...
Idling
It's Friday morning and time for me to write my weekly blog. It's been a good week. Saturday was publication day for the latest of my James Burke books, Burke and the War of 1812. We had a party. There was a cake. It was quite a night and, frankly, not a lot got done...
Excited!
I'm getting very excited here with the official launch of Burke and the War of 1812 coming up tomorrow. I quietly made the paperback available earlier, so if you want it on paper for launch day, you can order it today and it should arrive at the same time as the...
Historical fact and historical fiction
Research is always, in the end, a matter of judgement and, indeed, personal preference. There are some purists out there who seem uncomfortable with any fiction at all in their historical fiction. An author who dares to admit that sometimes they just make stuff up can infuriate this kind of reader/writer. At the other extreme, there are authors who will cheerfully ignore any historical details that get in the way of their stories which can often seem hardly “historical” at all.
Two excellent historical novels
Perhaps because I write historical fiction myself, I often struggle with reading the genre. So I’ve been really pleased to have read two HistFic books lately that have been a total joy. This week I’m delighted to review both of them. 'Red Horse' by MJ Logue Set in the...
Covers, copyright and Charleston
With Burke and the War of 1812 just three weeks from publication, there are all sorts of bits and pieces to talk about this week, so please bear with me. First up, for anyone who has missed it so far, here's the cover: The fort is a generic example of the period, as...
Cover reveal and crime news
Just four weeks until Burke and the War of 1812 is published. You can already pre-order it here: Burke and the War of 1812. I'm getting quite excited. We're having a party and there will be various references to burning down the White House. I think that's the only...
Countdown to publication
It's going to be a very short blog piece this week because I'm in the throes of getting Burke and the War of 1812 ready for publication. This is the eighth book in the James Burke series and I'm obviously getting better at the finishing touches because formatting it...
Three Crime Stories Reviewed
I usually review about one book a month on my blog, but I did much less reading of novels last year than I usually do because I was working on Burke and the War of 1812 and a lot of my reading was about Native Americans and the politics of the time. Anyway, the book...
A story featuring ‘our oldest ally’
Since I visited Portugal to research for Burke and the Lines of Torres Vedras, I’ve been a fan of the country and its long relationship with England. I've been quite irritated in the last few weeks to keep hearing that America is “our oldest ally”. Whether you think...