What Is Your Historical Fiction Novel About?

"Centuries before Rome’s conquest of the Mediterranean world, it was a small city ruled by kings on the Italian peninsula. Founded in 753 by Romulus, the son of Mars himself, the rule of the city passed down through the generations... When Servius Tullius, the sixth king of Rome, is brutally murdered by his daughter and Son-in-law, mutterings of unrest begin to brew in the city. Born into these unsettling times, Livia finds herself caught up in the intrigue and conspiracies of the final days of the Roman Monarchy…"

Directly from my page. lol. I just made myself a banner instead of studying for a midterm/working on character bios so go me!

My historical/lit fic novel is set in Argentina (Buenos Aires) shortly before/during the military dictatorship of the 1970s, so it's something that a lot of people either don't know much about or only have a vague idea about (but something that I'm personally passionate about). And since it's LitFic, it'll be very character based and just pretty much have the characters living through the tumultuous times of 1970s Argentina and struggling to survive.

My synopsis:
"Totoyatzin destiny always have seemed cursed... from the day he was born.
And old Aztec priestess prophesied about his dark fate: He would be resposible of the destruction of the last great Mayan city, but they will be dragged in the middle of that devastation and decadence.
Escaping from a furious horde that tried to kill him for mistaking him the responsible of the death of a beautiful woman belonging to the Aztec nobility, he gets captured for a rival tribe and in the middle of all his fears, suddenly he looks at a young girl, filthy but as beautiful as a Jade sculpture.
Her eyes are deep and beautiful, but her sight hides a secret that would change their lifes..."

Basically is a sad love story about how an young Aztec and a beautiful Mayan find each other in a odd situation, when one is the hostage of war to the other tribe... and how they fell in love... and sadly they're not gonna have a "and they lived happily ever after end.."

My story will be a re-imagining of the Bible, specifically the four gospels, told either exclusively or mainly from the perspective of Judas. Judas is actually an assumed name/identity - "he" is actually a woman, in disguise, so she will be more acceptable as a disciple. Jesus is not exactly the loving, progressive guy he is in the Bible - in fact, he can be quite the sexist jerk. He betrays Mary Magdalene, and Judas betrays Jesus out of revenge.

www.allysonwhipple.com
My Lulu.com storefront

2005-2007: Epic fail!
2008: Winter White Lights (Winner!)
2009: Loveless Gospels

Ooh, Anastaise, yours looks fascinating! And grim!

I just decided that my novel will be about a time-traveller (hush! It's more historical than sci-fi!) who goes to Napoleonic Era England to research disease and contagions in order to make it safer for the locals and future time travellers (har har). He poses as a doctor to do this. And then he catches something and he's stuck.

I don't want to plan out the rest too much, because I don't really like to do that. Before there was ever a plot, though, I came up with one scene where he isn't stuck anymore, and has to choose between staying in the past with the woman he loves, or going home and having a hot shower.

2006: Minus Ten (FAIL)
2007: Shinyarat (WIN)
2008: The Witch's Daughter (WIN)
2009: As-yet-untitled soon-to-be win!

I'm planning on a story of the life of Isabella de Medici, based on the perspective of her diary entries and/or stories told in the entries. It will also involve the scandals of the de Medici family as a whole, and her own personal scandals, up until her death.

My historical fiction takes place during WWII...on the homefront. My synposis is up and on my profile if you are interested.

NaNoWriMo 2006 - "A Liberty Tree"
NaNoWriMo 2007 - "A Daughter of Liberty"
NaNoWriMo 2008 - "Second Chance"
NaNoWriMo 2009 - "Would the Moon Rise Again"

Hi everyone. I don't think I should be doing NaNoWriMo this year because I am in grad school and am a full-time teacher, but I have also been wanting to write.

I am the family historian, I suppose, in my family, and through my genealogical research, I have discovered stories in my own family that I think are worthy of a wider audience. I realize that sounds cliché, but in my case, I think I have a point.

I plan to fictionalize the childhoods of my grandparents. My grandfather's father was murdered by his business partner (they were garage mechanics), leaving his pregnant wife to try to raise and feed their other ten children as the Great Depression was coming on. The children were starving. My grandfather's sister Bessie, who was about five at the time, recollected waiting in the hall for her turn to nurse because it was the only way my great-grandmother could feed her. Some of the older children started working, but they couldn't pick up enough to support the family. My grandmother heard that the state was planning to take the children away because she couldn't care for them. She spoke to her pastor, who brought her plight before the church congregation, and church members agreed to adopt the children and allow them to continue to have relationships with each other and their mother. When my grandfather was adopted, not only did his adoptive parents change his last name (which is typical), but they also changed his first name, which I found odd given that he was about nine.

My grandmother was born in the eastern Kentucky coal fields in Breathitt County. She found out in her forties that the man she grew up thinking was her father was not. On her birth certificate, her birth father's occupation is listed as "Convict" and his residence as "State Penetenchury." An archivist found two possible candidates in prison records, both of whom were convicted of willful murder. Two of my grandmother's siblings died as infants: one of dysentery with a secondary cause of malnutrition and the other of pneumonia.

In addition, I was inspired by the story of the Ghost of Bobby Dunbar. If you haven't caught that episode of NPR's This American Life, do check it out. It's one of the best stories I've heard.

Both of their childhoods were riddled with the kind of sadness, despair, and poverty that makes me think of The Grapes of Wrath. I haven't decided on an exact plot yet, but I know it will take place in Quicksand, KY, where my grandmother was born, and I think that would also make a good title.

It is set in Spring of 1292, and pilgrims from across Europe are heading for Santiago. Some will cross the Pyrenees together - facing danger, bad weather, bandits, murder and miracles, and having to face truths about themselves, their faith and their future......

The story will cover just the ten of so days between Ostebat and Puente la Reina, and the lives of the 30 of so characters .... who travel all or part of the way with them..

2005: The Cheese Gate Guard
2006: The Heron's Bridge
2007: Fair Warning
2009: Valley of Thorns

Your plan sounds so exciting, danahuff. My grandfather is from southeastern Kentucky, so I'm particularly biased towards settings there, but even still. Good luck with your story!

"We could get along very well without philosophy if we surrounded ourselves with beautiful things." ~ Oscar Wilde

Although I've changed my mind now about a half dozen times, I'm thinking of writing a story about Newport society in the Gilded Age. I went there a few months ago to tour the mansions and fell in love!

A young girl learns the importance of her blood-line after her older sister gets murdered during the Black Death.

Elinor, 15, is caretaker to her older sister, Emma’s, children in 1665 London, England. As the Black Death claims lives around them, something else takes Emma’s life and her violent husband, John, is blamed. He swears his innocence and after meeting some strange, wealthy travellers, Elinor starts to believe John. When Elinor defends him, the community turns on her – aided by newcomers inciting riots to “purge the town of sinfulness” – accusing her of witchcraft and adultery, even possibly being the true murderer of her sister. The wealthy strangers appear again – although they are not very helpful to Elinor’s situation, but give her equally strange and unbelievable insight into her blood-line and why it is absolutely necessary for her to survive.

~~~~
Although I have to say that mine isn't just historical fiction - but my story's setting is in this time period. :) There is some definite sci-fi/fantasy involved!

I haven't a clue what I'm doing. Ever.
Stay Shiny. Keep Flyin'

1962, Wheatland, CA. Or, 1993, somewhere in Southern California. Or maybe CA's Central Valley. Yipes.

It appears that I am a mite less invested/ambitious than most others in this thread.

"I want to unburden my soul to a loved one! and yet, if people knew me, I would have to commit suicide!" - Allen Ginsberg

What is my novel about? I swear the plot has changed four or five times. It's a historical romance. Here's the current synopsis:

1874, Wyoming

Cassandra Price spent her life caring for her drunken father and trying to run their farm so they wouldn't starve. After his passing, Cassie was left with the land and a marriage proposal from her greedy neighbor. In order to save her farm, Cassie needs help from a man. Every coin she has goes to buy seed and supplies, so hiring one isn't a possibility. But a marriage in name only might might temporarily solve her problems.

Jacob Bourke is trying escape the nightmares and horror that followed the Civil War. He bears the eternal mark of a deserter and the shame that goes along with it. Trying to bury the past instead of facing it, he agrees to marry a little spitfire woman who needs him more than he needs her. Or so he thinks.

If they work together, Jacob and Cassie can overcome their troubled pasts and build a future. But Cassie's head strong attitude and Jacob's secret make trusting each other a difficult concept. When the harvest is over, will Cassie turn Jake away?

A. R.
http://arcummings.blogspot.com

"We have done the impossible, and that makes us mighty."

synopsis on home page completed...(I'm editing this so it says the same thing)

At the end of World War II, Beverly is abandoned as a baby and adopted into a fruit-farming family in southwestern Michigan. She escapes childhood with the scars of abuse and conditional kindness. Then, the unimaginable happens, midway through high school and pregnant, Beverly is sent away to endure the loss of her own child to adoption.
Never believing the lie that she could ever forget or go on with life as normal, Beverly needs to reinvent herself and does so in a small, Texas town. She finds good friends and soon love begins to seep into the cracks around Beverly’s wounded heart.
Based on Isaiah 49, Beverly's life suffers sharp blows always softened by a tender grace. Follow Beverly's journey from a life accidental to a life rich with purpose.

[hooray- synopsis done for now!]
ldwa

LDWA
-----------------------------
I prefer to think of myself as pre-published. --t-shirt on cafepress :)

I'm hoping this year I'll manage to get more done on the novel I've been working on for (literally) a few years. It's set in Rome during the first 60-odd years AD. The storyline: Jurisa, an Amazon from North Africa joins a gladiatorial school in hopes that she can find her lover, Dau, who's been sold into slavery. Once inside, however, she discovers that he's not even there! Unable to leave, she must train as a fighter. Within three years, she becomes a popular gladiatrix in the arenas of the Roman Empire and must ultimately take part in a re-staged battle depicting Hercules against the Amazons.

I'm writing a historical crossover/ fanfiction set in 16th century France on the eve of the Saint Bartholomew's massacre. If I have enough time I may try and do the prequel as well, but we'll see. I may be a little too ambitious!

Sir Francis Walsingham, Sir Brad Colbert and his team of elite reconnaissance spies go over to France on the eve of the wedding of Henri de Navarre and Marguerite de Valois. Their mission: to stop a plot to murder Queen Elizabeth. They team up with Sir Francis's undercover agent , but get entwined in the intrigues of the Valois court.
Brad Colbert’s team fight a battle against time to uncover the truth as the wedding comes ever closer, tensions between Catholic and Protestant reach boiling point and the terrors of the St Bartholomew’s massacre await them all.
As the aftermath of the killings affect the court from the highest to the low, the murders continue. No one is safe as more secrets come to light. Catherine de’ Medici’s long reign of horror and lies is finally exposed to all.
Not least; The darkest Valois secret of all which will change all their lives forever.

This is the synopsis of the prequel, which I really want to do as well:

Nate Fick and his father Seamus have lived at the court of France since he was a small boy. His angelic youthful looks and his musical talent have made the young boy a favourite at court.
Father and son both share a secret: Seamus is a spy for the English, and Nate is training to follow in his father’s footsteps. It’s dangerous work, but Nate strives to please Sir Francis Walsingham his father’s ruthless, clever boss and Lord Stephen Ferrando, his handler.
The Queen Mother sees Nate’s talent. She observes that her young daughter Margot adores him and counts him as her closest friend. Catherine de’ Medici offers to bring Nate up as one of her own.
Sir Francis and Lord Ferrando cannot resist the chance to place their young agent so close to the throne and agree. Although Seamus is reluctant to give up his son, this is a chance he cannot object to. Nate joins the court and takes on his father’s role, but it will take every bit of intelligence, guile and the loyalty of his mistress Margot to succeed.
Throughout their childhood, Margot and her sweet troubadour are inseparable. Though Nate’s feelings for his unattainable mistress intensify with time, tragedy strikes and Nate is sent away to silence him. When he returns from his studies in Italy, events take an unexpected turn. Can the young agent keep in control? Or is he in far too deep?
A tale of intrigue, first love and treachery, ‘Sun and Moon’ is a glimpse into the ruthless world of sixteenth century France.

Hopefully if all goes to plan, I'll have two long fics done by Christmas!

Nano '08: The Poisoned Veil (96K- Winner)
Nano '09: The Poignard
Nano '09: Sun and Moon

My novel will concern Richard of Shrewsbury, first Duke of York, one of the "princes in the tower." He and his brother, Edward V, were imprisoned in the Tower of London at a young age by their uncle, Richard of Gloucester, in 1483. Their imprisonment was a key part of Gloucester's plan to claim the throne. Much speculation has arisen due to the mysterious disappearance of the princes from public view in autumn of 1483, and my novel will concern a fictional continuation of young York's life.

The novel will pick up just after the murder of the Duke of Clarence, shortly before the death of the young princes' father, Edward IV. It will chronicle young York's journey to London following his father's death and the subsequent imprisonment of the two princes in the Tower of London. In keeping with my interest in Shakespeare's play, "Richard III," I will use the same theory the Bard portrays in regard to the murder of the princes, that Gloucester (then Richard III) hired Sir James Tyrell to murder the boys in secret. However, the great portion of the novel will take place after the "murder," going on the assumption that young Richard escaped.

"A Not So Tragic History of Zombie Hunters" (NaNo '09) - current project, 0 words.

My plot isn't as fleshed out as I'd like it to be, but here's what I have so far:

A man who lives his life under the heavy influence of laudanum travels to Paris, sleeps with a hooker but leaves without paying her. After his return to London (more specially, Grub Street), the gypsy-mother of the hooker follows him, entices him to a tarot reading and uses the cards to curse him.

It's rough, but that's the bare bones of it. My MC is going to be confused and terrified the entire time, really, because he can't tell what's an illusion of the laudanum (slash opium and morphine) and what's really after him--if anything really is. I imagine he'll track down his Parisian whore in attempts to get her mother's curse off of him, and we'll see where it goes from there xD.

I haven't got a fully fleshed-out plot, but mine is going to take place in London, England 1884 through 1889 or 1890. A thirteen year old girl, Esther, who is fascinated by the novelties shown in the sideshows in the city, one day goes with her family, including her blind sister, Sophie, to see the new addition to the 'freak shows': "The Elephant Man". At first she is both horrified and fascinated by his deformity, but is soon intrigued by his autobiography, which shows a humanness behind the disfigurement. Esther and Sophie want to know more about this 'freak' and get to know him as a person. However, the girls' parents, when they find out about their interest in Joseph Merrick, they are less than happy, and will do anything to prevent their daughters associating with Merrick again, even when the girls tell them that he's harmless. This takes place over a few years, as you could tell in the first sentence, and I plan to also have an epilogue, which would take place in 1889, if not 1890.

The title proposed for this story is "The Gentle Man Behind The Mask".

My novel is about three girls from the present who are sent back in time to Salem, MA in 1692 to protect the time line. It's the first in a trilogy. This book will be told in the first person by Katie, the one with the time traveling ability. (The second book, to take place in the 1920s or so, will be told by Danielle, who can see the future...or rather, the present... in bodies of water, and the third will be told by Fiona, my loudest character, who can talk to the dead and whose book takes place at Woodstock.) I'm really excited about this book because the Salem Witch Trials are a passion of mine, and I've been researching them for years. I'm also deeply in love with the town of Salem and go there every chance I get. (I plan to live there eventually.) The book will basically follow the trials, with a close look at the afflicted girls, who take a special interest in my main characters because they're not from Salem. (They claim to be distant relatives of the Corey family.) It has the added twist of people from the present searching for someone who's trying to mess up the time line, and who is much closer than they realize.

~*Twilicat*~

My novel is inspired by a couple of changeling myths and the fact that it takes place during the Golden Age of piracy. A human mother discovers that her baby has been switched with a changeling. Despite the controversy this causes, she treats him like her own. Most of her family abandons her and her husband (who turns out to be a jerk) turns on her. In the meantime, the mother of the changeling steals the human baby back and finds the human mother so they can switch back. The faerie mother can not return back home because she stole the human baby back, but the human world is dangerous for her and her son (witch hunters). She is grateful that the human mother treated her son so well and the human mother is very grateful that the faerie got her son back. They decide to go into hiding together with their sons.
I'm not sure what happens for the next few years. Maybe they move from town to town, live in a couple big cities, hide out in a few forests... Basically, they have to keep moving to avoid the church, witch hunters, and angry mobs. Eventually, they join a pirate crew, in the hopes that it will keep them moving, but also allow them a place to stay. Some of the pirates figure out what the faerie woman and her son are and, to their surprise, accept them. I'm thinking of maybe one or both of the women falling in love again. I'm not sure what other conflicts there will be or how it will end yet.

Thanks, Felicity! I have a good start, and I am happy with it so far.

Mine's set in the sixth century BC, and follows a celebrated choral poet to the island of Astupalaia, off the coast of Turkey. Without giving too much away (and also because I'm not sure yet how it's going to end!), the poet ends up caught up in solving a brutal murder.

Loving writing it so far, and historical facts are pretty sketchy from that time so I'm not too inhibited by having to worry overly about accuracy... but writing the dialogue is impossible!

Mine is set in the "Swedish phase" of the Thirty Years War, between 1631 and 1636.

Lukas has promised his father, who was executed as a rebel by the catholic Imperial army, that he will never join the war and instead marry, start a family, have dozens of children. His elder brothers have been lost in the war, and his mother and sisters died of the plague. For 5 years Lukas kept the promise, found a girl to marry, lives a quiet life away from the war. But then the town where he lives is burnt to cinders by the Imperials, Lukas' girlfriend gets killed, and Lukas finds himself joining the newly arrived Swedish army, seeing as he has no other prospect, no home, no family. With him travels the noblewoman Helene, the wife of a Swedish officer, who in that same Imperial attack lost her son.
Lukas turns out to be a natural soldier, despite hating what he has to do to survive in the army, which is being depleted not only by battles but even more so by starvation and disease in an increasingly desolate land. Helene, unhappily married, throws herself into the arms of one of the highest ranking officers, only to eventually discover that he never had any real plans of getting her marriage dissolved to marry her himself. Finally she opens her eyes to see that Lukas is what she really needs and wants, despite the social gap between them.
But between them stands her husband, a ruthless colonel of the cavalry, Lukas' eldest brother who turns up again fighting on the other side, the colonel who was responsible for the execution of Lukas' father, the general who Helene had her affair with and who, despite marrying another woman for political reasons, can't get her out of his mind, and the general's wife who is sick with jealousy. And the war itself, the fighting and dying, is the biggest obstacle of them all.

The question of the plot is: Will Lukas get his revenge, survive the war, find a home again and start the family as he promised his father? And will Helene find a way to leave her husband, make a fresh start and find the love she craves?

I have been working on this for months now. Half of it (50.000 words) is written. I need NaNo to help me get the second half done.

http://www.vexborg.me/joomla

"Armer, geliebter, völlig verrückter Aimery." (Charlotte Lyne "Das Haus Gottes")

Basically, "Three Brothers" is a fictionalisation of an event that happened in 1748, when the "Hawkhurst Gang" Raided a customs house in poole, to collect the smuggled goods that were meant to land on the Sussex coast. Woven into this is the the Historical Figure Thomas Kingsmill, and his two, fictional Brothers, Arthur, who ends up as a revenue man, and therefore on the other side, and Isaac Mayweather, who is a child, and the two Kingsmill's Half brother.In that, I have taken some Dramatic licesnce, but the events will unfold as they did in 1748, just with the additional characters adding a bit of a story behind the events, and indeed driving them a bit.

In a sentence: A Yankee in King Arthur's court. Yeah, I know it's just like Mark Twain. Except it's set in the Napoleonic Wars during General Sir Arthur Wellesley's Peninsular Campaign. My character is the son of an exiled British politician-turned Virginia plantation owner. He has a mysterious, sordid past that only adds to the suspicion already attached to him as an American when he enlists in the British Army. The narrative mainly focuses on his battalion, the 34th Infantry, and the battles they fight during the campaign, culminating in Wellesley's invasion of southern france.

"There is a fine line between hobby and obsession. I seem to have lost sight of it some time ago." -Chainsaw Aardvark

Mine is An Alternate Historical Novel taking place during the Tudor Period. In this alternate reality Katherine of Aragon marries twice widowed Sir Thomas Moore as part of her divorce agreement with Henry VIII thus Moore is not executed in 1535 for treason and Katheine does not die in 1536.

By the year 1536, Katherine and Sir Thomas have been happily married and had one daughter together named Elenor. Henry VIII on the other hand does not have a happy ending with Anne Boleyn. The day before Anne's execution Henry is in the midst of a nervous breakdown wth a disasterous engagement to Anne of Cleaves (in this alternate reality Jane Seymour is married to the Duke of Suffolk Charles Bradon). When Katherine goes to comfort her former husband, Henry takes it as a gesture that Katherine still loves him and as a sign she wants him back.

Consummed by insanity the King of England starts to do anything and EVERYTHING to get Katherine back, putting Katherine's life and the ones she love's lives in grave danger.

I'm adoring the alternative Tudor story.

Old Kingdom, Egypt. The reign of Khaf-Re.

Memphis is bulking up against an attack by the Hysokians, although no serious attempts have been made as of yet. Beset by all sides to marry, the royal Pharaoh is seriously contemplating marryign a Hysokian princess, if only to avoid all out war and the nagging of the court. Outside Egypt, a small desert tribe is decimated by Egyptian forces for slaves and the remainder are taken back to Egypt. Included in this is a beautiful teenager, who catches Pharaoh's eye.

The rest includes assassinations, bloodbaths, civil war, Hysokians, slavery and intrigue. And possibly a stampeding herd of Elephants.

Meals Missed: 5
Coke Consumed: 6 litres
Tv Shows Missed: 12

Characters Killed: 29.5
Assassination Attempts: 2