Guest Post & Giveaway : “So What Goes Into Writing Something Historical?” by L.A.Witt
Welcome to the Riptide Publishing/L. A. Witt blog tour for The Left Hand of Calvus, part of the Warriors of Rome collection and available November 5th. The entire collection is available here for pre-order as a group or individually, and all pre-orders enter you in a drawing for a Nook.
Every comment on this blog tour enters you in a drawing for a choice of two eBooks off my backlist (excluding The Left Hand of Calvus) and a $10 Riptide Publishing store credit. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on November 12th, and winners will be announced on November 13th. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries.
So What Goes In To Writing Something Historical?
With the release of The Left Hand of Calvus, I’m dipping my toes into the historical genre for the first time. Well, okay, I’ve written steampunk before, set in an actual historical setting, but I took enough liberties with that (being steampunk and all) that I really don’t consider it historical. So we’ll call this my first.
And the first step in that first historical book?
Research. Lots of research.
Lots and lots of research.
No, I didn’t read every book from cover to cover, but some? Yes. And as an aside, I was working on a contemporary western hetero novel at the same time I was researching this one. Just imagine what my dreams were like during that time. Yes, they were that weird. Quite possibly even weirder, because my mind is a very strange place. Trust me. I live here.
I went into the research without much of a story in mind. I knew I wanted to set it in Pompeii, and I knew I wanted to involve gladiators, but beyond that? Nada. The actual story emerged from the scribbles in the margins of my notes: “Left-handed gladiator?” “Scandal involving politician’s wife?” “Sheisty bastards double-crossing each other?”
The characters crystallized. The outline came together.
Then I watched the film Gladiator, which is always a terrible hardship. I even sat through both seasons of Rome, just to get a feel for the setting. Though Rome and The Left Hand of Calvus are not contemporaneous to each other (one is set in Rome in the first century BC, the other is in Pompeii in the first century AD), much of the setting and cultural details were still relevant, and damn it I just wanted to watch it again. Don’t judge me.
With an outline in hand, not to mention a head full of research (and Joaquin Phoenix and James Purefoy), I sat down in front of a blank Word document and started banging on the keyboard. Naturally, my schedule had been nonstop madness for the previous few months, leaving me with only two weeks to get this thing out of my skull and onto the page, so there was a lot of yelling, panicking, and generally wondering why I do this to myself. The outline changed. The characters rebelled. I ran out of Dr Pepper. A few times, it seemed hopeless. There wasn’t enough caffeine. The characters had run screaming in the opposite direction. The outline was but a shell of its original spreadsheet beauty.
But two weeks later, the book was done.
My first ever historical, in all its glory. Then it was off to Riptide, where the editorial staff earned the drinks I will be buying them at the next conference. While the editors did their thing, the art department produced this gorgeous piece of cover awesomeness:
And now… now it is finished. After all the reading and the weird dreams and the Rome-viewing and the Dr Pepper famine, I give you: The Left Hand of Calvus, available November 5th as part of the Riptide Publishing Warriors of Rome collection.
Will this be my last historical? No, I don’t think so. In fact, I may even go traipsing back to ancient Rome sometime in the near future.
Stay tuned. 😉
BIO
L.A. Witt is an abnormal M/M romance writer who, after three years in Okinawa, Japan, has recently relocated to Omaha, Nebraska, with her husband, two cats, and a three-headed clairvoyant parakeet named Fred. There is some speculation that this move was not actually because of her husband’s military orders, but to help L. A. close in on her arch nemesis, erotica author Lauren Gallagher, who has also recently transferred to Omaha. So, don’t anyone tell Lauren. She’s not getting away this time…
L. A.’s backlist is available on her website, and updates (as well as random thoughts and the odd snarky comment) can be found on her blog or on Twitter (@GallagherWitt).
THE LEFT HAND OF CALVUS
Blurb:
Former gladiator Saevius is certain fortune’s smiling on him when a Pompeiian politician buys him to be his bodyguard. But then his new master, Laurea Calvus, orders Saevius to discover the gladiator with whom his wife is having an affair. In order to do that, Saevius must return to the arena, training alongside the very men on whom he’s spying. Worse, he’s now under the command of Drusus, a notoriously cruel—and yet strangely intriguing—lanista.
But Saevius’s ruse is the least of his worries. There’s more to the affair than a wife humiliating her prominent husband, and now Saevius is part of a dangerous game between dangerous men. He isn’t the only gladiator out to expose the Lady Verina’s transgressions, and her husband wants more than just the guilty man’s name.
When Saevius learns the truth about the affair, he’s left with no choice but to betray one of his masters: one he’s come to fear, one he’s come to respect, and both of whom could have him killed without repercussion. For the first time in his life, the most dangerous place for this gladiator isn’t the arena.
You can pre-order The Left Hand of Calvus here, and read an excerpt here.
Great post! Loved the insights into what goes into writing a historical. I’m guessing there’s a little bit of research involved, lol 😉
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Aniko — Just a little bit of research. lol
And thank you, Barb, for having me!
L. A. Witt
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Thank YOU for stopping by!
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Thanks Barb and LA. As always, I truly enjoy the “behind the scenes” of what goes into making a story. LA is one of my favorite writers and historicals one of my favorite genres, so this one is definitely high on my TBR list 🙂
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Wow – you really did write it in 2 weeks…that’s amazing – and means I guessed wrong on one of the previous tour stops 🙂
Looking forwarding to reading this (it’s in my tbr pile) 🙂
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Yep, I guessed wrong on the previous tour stop, too! Should have taken Weird Al’s advice on an ancient episode of REMOTE CONTROL, when someone buzzed in too quickly: “You should wait, ’cause if you wait, you learn!” Oh well. It does look very intriguing…
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Crazy, to write such a great story in so short a time. 🙂 Glad to hear you’ll be writing more historicals!
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One word which encompasses everything I find awesome about writers… “research” I am too lazy to check my pantry before hitting the supermarket 😛
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hehehehe I had a feeling the “two weeks” fact would stump a few people. And to be honest, I probably won’t make myself produce a historical in that time frame again….it’s just too much to write in too little time. But…looming deadline, crazy schedule, etc. 2 weeks is plenty of time to write a contemporary, not so much for something historical. lol
L. A.
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That is so incredible to write a book in two weeks, especially a historical one. It takes me forever to write important memos, emails or letters at work.
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Two weeks!!! Damn!! Really looking forward to reading this. Thanks for the great blog 😀
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Two weeks? Wow!!! Did you pretty much have the story in your head or did the facts help steer the story in certain directions? I always wonder how much getting details historically correct messes with the creative process. Thanks for hosting this, Barb 😀
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I had the story outlined, and a pretty good idea of what would happen, but the characters kept hijacking it. lol So it was in a constant state of flux even while I was writing it.
The historical details didn’t hurt the creative process. In fact, they helped. Sometimes I’d uncover a fact that would actually open up entirely new doors for the story, but it was very rare for a fact to stifle me or hinder the progress of the story.
L.A.
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Hey, L.A.! Thanks for a great blog. Shay
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Loathing of research has killed many a grad school career. Ahem. Kudos on all your hard work! You cannot fake authenticity.
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I enjoy doing research *to a point*. When I set out to write this one, I knew I wanted to set it in Pompeii during a certain period, and it would involve gladiators. So I specifically researched Pompeii and gladiators, and didn’t let myself wander too far outside of that. i.e., I didn’t bother getting into the intricacies of Roman politics because it didn’t really come into play in this story, but I spent hours and hours looking at how gladiators trained, lived, and fought. In other words: I got to research all the cool stuff instead of the boring stuff. hehe
L.A.
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Thanks for the great post!
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This sounds really good! Research drives me crazy – I could never manage it!
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Thanks again to everyone who’s stopped in and commented, and to Barb for having me!
L.A.
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Thanks for the post! I love history and you really don’t see enough historical novels! This is a really great time period too! Great to visit, not to live,
OceanAkers @ aol.com
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Ooh, go back to rome some day? That would be awesome! LOL…
Enjoyed the post! \^o^/
Judi
arella3173_loveless@yahoo(dot)com
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Sorry for the late announcement, folks! I wanted to thank you all again for stopping by during The Left Hand of Calvus blog tour, and announce that the winner of 2 ebooks off my backlist and a $10 Riptide store credit is…URB, who commented on the “Ten Things You Didn’t Know You Wanted to Know About Me at Chicks & Dicks! I’ll e-mail you shortly with details.
Thanks again, everyone!
L.A. Witt
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