Coming This Sunday! Historytellers Scavenger Hunt!

by Lillian Csernica on March 15, 2019

 

Hi there! Thanks to the wonderful Sarah Zama, known to many of us as @JazzFeathers, I get to be part of the HISTORYTELLERS Scavenger Hunt on Sunday, March 17. You’re all invited!
12 authors of historical fiction set in the 1910s, 1920s and 1930s are joining together to offer a bundle of their books to a lucky reader, and that reader might well be you, don’t you think? St. Patrick’s Day is a fine day for good luck!

Head over HERE to see how you can play the hunt.

This is the link to Storytellergirl, the next blog on the Scavenger Hunt!

You can also help us spread the word. The more we are, the more fun we’ll have.

TWEET THIS:  Are you a reader of #historicalfiction set in the first decades of the 1900s? Then we are on the same page! Join the #Historytellers scavenger hunt for a chance to win 12 novels set in your favourite period! http://sumo.ly/12u1T #historicalfiction #amreading #freeebooks

 

 

B is for Back Story

Cover via Amazon

by Lillian Csernica on April 2, 2013

B is f or Back Story

The back story is everything that has happened to your main character leading up to the story you want to tell. Many writers believe that the more you know about your main character’s back story, the better you’ll be able to show him or her on the page. Spend all that time figuring out all those dozens of little details and you’ll come up with the one or two that make all the difference in the story.

Not necessary.

All you really need to know about your main character’s past is what affects him or her in the context of the story you’re telling right now.

In my historical romance novel SHIP OF DREAMS, all I had to know about my hero Alexandre de Marchant was that he blamed himself for the destruction of the French naval vessel he served aboard because he didn’t kill their incompetent commander when he had the chance. If he’d done so, the much more qualified officers would have defeated their English adversaries and Alexandre’s shipmates would still be alive. His guilt and the pathological hatred of all English sailors that arose from it made writing his actions and reactions much easier.

Speed counts for a lot in today’s marketplace. Yes, you need those telling details to bring your story to life, but if you get bogged down in those details and don’t finish your story, it may never get the chance to live.