By Erastes
I’m very rarely lost for words, but recently I’ve been racking my brain to come up with a post to blog about this week and been coming up empty. Jessewave has said that she would like to see more historical posts, and she was surprised I hadn’t done more, but I suppose I’ve always been a little sensitive about my obsession, and I’m aware that this blog caters for all genres, not just my little corner.
So she suggested that I Ask The Audience. (Insert “Millionaire” music here.)
SO! What would you like to see me waffle on about? It’s generally just a subject matter than eludes me, and once I have a subject, then I’m off and running. Miss-have-an-opinion on everything, that’s me. Writing, Reading, Research, Time Periods, Costumes, Laws, Perceptions – just a few ideas, but I’d love to hear what YOU want to hear about.
Don’t be shy–I’m happy to consider anything in the genre, it doesn’t have to be about historical, although of course I’m happy to speak about that. It was so great to have the discussion about historicals this week, and it showed the writers how much appreciation there is for the books because of the huge response!
Looking forward to hearing what you have to say, you are a great group, and the blog goes from strength to strength.
ps – I’m doing a review for the blog fairly soon – two wonderful little books I bought thinking they were historicals, and they turned out to be historical fairy stories, so I couldn’t review them on Speak Its Name. However I want everyone to know about them, so watch out for me in a new guise.
I would be interested in reading something about the different physical aesthetic between historicals and contemporary. We all think of the six pack abs as the standard of modern masculine beauty but it hasn’t always been so. However when I look at pics of guys from the 1800’s with mutton chops and they appear to be pregnant or have a severe beer gut (those pants do them no favours) I really don’t want to visualize that when I’m reading because I don’t find it attractive now. So how as an author do you reconcile what/who we readers find sexy in 2009 with what a hero would have found attractive and sexy (beyond the brain and personality, yeah yeah, that’s always important ;-P) in other time periods. Not only 1800’s but perhaps even older or not so old.
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What books would you make into a movie Erastes? Who would you have be the star(s)? Do you think there is any chance in hell Hollywood (or British studios) would ever make the movie you want or would Charles become Charlene?
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Historical food. How is it different? Would I really know that they didn’t eat pork chops in 1657? Do readers care? Can you just fake it? Okay, no Big Macs but how important are those little details? IYHO.
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What part of research do you love the most. Looking for the little details (as above) like if they drank wine or wore socks or used a pig hair paint brush or the details of a big battle, how many men died, how the ship went down, what happened. What turns your crank as a researcher? (Personally I’m more interested in whether they wore underwear and ate breakfast than what General X did on July 12, 1754.)
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There is my two cents, take from it what you will. 🙂
Thank you so much Tam. I think it’s wonderful to hear from people as to what they’d BE INTERESTED in, because I often get it wrong, some post that I’m sure will get people talking often don’t – and vice versa. If people are interested and suggest subjects, at least I know I’ll have an audience. This is a great list – and I’ll certainly be working on them!
Damn Tam! Are you sure you’re not a writer?
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I would be interested in the amount of research you have to do to write a book. It seems to me that you must spend most of your time in libraries hunting down obscure information and hope like hell that it’s correct, because some researcher will find the smallest error. I’ve seen all those reviews on SiN. 😀
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Compared to historical writers, contemporary authors have an easy time – all they have to do is try to make everyday occurrences seem interesting and throw in a few murders or other ripped from the headlines events. Do you sometimes wish you specialized in contemps? (But then there would be no breeches to rip open) 😀 What would make you switch?
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When you choose a topic for a romance how do you decide on the time period? What goes on in those little grey cells (as Poirot would say)? Tell us why so many gay historical romances have to end unhappily? We know the guys can’t live openly together but surely there is a way for a HFN? Don’t tell me that you have to be true to the period because you can figure a way. How hard would it be? (Aren’t you happy you asked this question?)
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What are the other challenges of writing a gay historical romance? I notice that many of the built-in conflicts seem to be around religion and zealots and war. Can’t we get other conflicts? It seems to me that we could put a fork in religion because it’s been done so many times. Ditto for war. Other topics seem to be done a lot as well and I’m wondering if the well of new ideas has dried up. How difficult is it to come up with new ideas?
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OK I’m done.
eee! I want to answer all these NOW! Talk about how to press all my buttons at once! Thank you, Wave!
“Damn Tam! Are you sure you’re not a writer? ”
Umm. Yeah. But I can write a kick-ass government memo. I have mad skillz in the BS department. 🙂
I’d love to see something about writing the personal dynamic between two men, who are from a time/culture that means they never expected to be involved romatically with a man and certainly have no role models or guidence about how to have such a relationship.
Oh good one, thank you JFM. I had to consider that deeply for Hard and Fast…
I always enjoy your posts, especially those “observational” posts, discussing things and trends you observe (agree/dislike/scratching head) in the historical or m/m romance world.
Oh, that triggered something for me.
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Erastes: Do you think British men in romance novels in general (or m/m specifically) are accurately portrayed or do all of us in NA just fall for the accent and we either romanticise them (they are all James Bonds) or do we not give them enough credit (they are all Mr. Bean)? What about movies with British guys? You would know British men (not all of them obviously 😉 ) better than I. (Although I’ve known a few in my life – but never in the Biblical sense, more’s the pity.)
Thank you, thelastaeire, that’s very reassuring – sometimes it is a “scratching of head” and I’m glad that people still enjoy reading my verbosity. 🙂
Horses! I love almost all animals but never had the chance to learn enough. A primer for equine ignorami would be something I’d probably frame. How far could a rider expect to go on a good/bad/indifferent horse? What sort of horsey afflictions could cause temporary problems (a stone in the shoe, I know, but wouldn’t a good rider catch that almost immediately?) Driving a horse-drawn vehicle, etc etc etc. (If you wouldn’t find it too boring…)
Oh… yes……
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I could most certainly waffle on about horses for a long long time.
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Chris Smith asked me that yesterday “why haven’t you written more about horses?” and I have to say, I have no idea. Perhaps it’s because I’m not a great fan of racing, and it’s racing that was THE SPORT in the 18th century etc.
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But yes, I can certainly do a post on “things that people get wrong about horses.” I very often forget that most people know very little about them–even my friends used to think they were just hairy cars.
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Thanks, Lee!
Yes, I know nothing about horses, so a post like that would be very useful 🙂
What about a post about those things that make a historical a really good one, in your eyes. What are you looking for when you review gay historical fiction?
Why is the d/s, man/boy, top/bottom dynamic so popular and what might be interesting to see for a change?
How do you represent characters as men of their time without making them unlikeable because of their horrible opinions? How can you make them different from the typical man of his time without making them seem anachronistic?