By Sarah Loudin Thomas
I write historical
fiction . . . but I cheat.
I only just realized
this as my third novel was about to release in August 2016. I’ve long struggled
with genre and fitting what I write into a specific slot. Maybe it’s
historical. Maybe it’s romance. Maybe it’s historical romance. OR it just might be
women’s fiction.
Regardless of my
dithering, my novels are often characterized as historical fiction. Which is
fine with me. But then I realized something . . . I don’t work nearly as hard
as most other authors of historical fiction do.
I really enjoy the genre
and often read it. Right now I’m enjoying Leaving Independence by Leanne W.
Smith. It’s about a woman traveling the Oregon Trail with her four children in
pursuit of a footloose husband. I love the descriptions of places and clothing
and social customs. It all feels very real to me—like Leanne did excellent
research.
Which brings me to
cheating. I research very little. Oh, I look up timelines and newspaper
headlines for context, but I’m not exactly immersing myself in the westward
movement of the 1860s. I don’t have to research what the wagons were like. I
don’t have to wonder about clothing and food. And if I read someone’s diary,
it’s just because I want to.
All I’ve really needed
to do is listen and ask questions.
The furthest back my
novels have traveled is 1948. My father was born in 1941 and he remembers a
good bit from those days. As did my grandmother who shared many a story before
she passed. If I want to know what kind of stove someone would have cooked on
in rural Appalachia in 1954, I call Dad and ask him.
It’s as though I’ve been
researching all my life. I’m from West Virginia and one of our primary forms of
entertainment is telling stories. This drives my husband nutty. He’ll look at
me as Dad launches into that story about a dog named Sloomer and mouth, “We’ve
heard this one.”
Yes, we have. And
hearing it again will only drive it a bit deeper into my psyche and make it
that much more real when I weave it into a story.
Turns out there’s more
than one-way to skin a cat. Digging deep into research—becoming an expert on a
specific time period—is wonderful. I have deep respect for writers who spend as
much or more time researching as they do writing.
But when I took a notion
to write historical fiction (not realizing that’s what it was), all I had to do
was dredge up the stories I heard at my father’s knee. Stories he’s still happy
to tell sitting on the porch of an evening.
Some folks say if you
want to write, write what you know and that’s how I’ve managed to cheat at
research. I write what I know from a lifetime of listening.
_________________________________________________
Sarah Loudin Thomas grew
up on a 100-acre farm in French Creek, WV, the seventh generation to live
there. Her Christian fiction is set in West Virginia and celebrates the people,
the land, and the heritage of Appalachia. Her first novel, Miracle in a Dry Season, released August 2014 through Bethany House. Book #2, Until the Harvest,released May 2015. Sarah and her husband Jim live in the mountains of Western
North Carolina with Thistle–the canine equivalent to a personal trainer pushing
them to hike, run, and throw sticks. Sarah is active in her local church and
enjoys cooking and–you guessed it–reading. Her social media links are: www.SarahLoudinThomas.com www.facebook.com/SarahLoudinThomas @SarahAnneThomas www.pinterest.com/sarahlthomas
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