Readers, have you ever wondered why you ‘read what you read’?
Authors, what is your response in interviews about why you 'write what you write'?
For both readers and writers: If you're drawn to a particular genre over all others, have you ever considered why?
Over the years of my publishing career, I've encountered variations of these questions in author interviews. I have three general points—with examples—for why I tend to write historicals and particularly stories set in the American Old West.
Reason 1—Research
Every historical I write allows me to follow rabbits down research rabbit holes. I've discovered the most intriguing and amazing tidbits of history in my historical research Wonderland. Researching is my ‘happy place’. It’s important to me to have the details in my stories as historically accurate as possible.
Reason 2—Living vicariously in the past
While I’m writing a story set in the past, I get to travel to a different place and time and live in someone else's shoes, so-to-speak. I’m like Anthony Marston in Quigley Down Under: “…Some men [women] are born in the wrong century.” All my life I’ve felt out-of-place living in our ‘modern’ world. So when I transport myself to the time in which my characters are living, I’m in another one of my ‘happy places’.
Reason 3—Challenge of overcoming inconveniences
I like writing stories that lack modern day conveniences. Without the amenities we’re accustomed to nowadays, there are so many juicy complications for the characters to face, deal with, and overcome that otherwise could be written away with a call on the cell phone or by hopping an airplane. The possibilities for plot complications in the areas of communication, transportation, physical relationships (particularly in the area of limited contraceptive options), and medicine—to name but a few—are endless.
THE COMANCHERO'S BRIDE - AMAZON.COM
Kaye
Writing the West one romance upon a time
www.kayespencer.com
Twitter - @kayespencer
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