Uh huh!
That's priceless!
Yep! Same!
I want to write some historical fiction novels, but I worry that I'll make mistakes like this. I'll defiantly have people proof read them and do my best, but my books would have to be more on the side of giving the readers the experience of living in that time period and the history of it, rather than the tiny details. No author, writer, or book is perfect.Well, it’s set in Scotland and features hunks in kilts! My dear hubby of 54 years refers to it as a “crotch novel”. What does he know? Teehee
I love historical novels and it was while reading one that the idea to write my own came about. I have a few favorite authors and there is one in particular who does such a bang-up job of weaving actual characters and events of the time into her books. She has been highly praised for her historical accuracy in everything from the dress and foods of the times to the political intrigues. I had settled back in my warm bed to read her latest, expecting the same attention to detail she’d always shown. About an hour into the read, I suddenly tossed the book across the room in disgust (good thing it was a paperback and not my iPad) and lay there fuming! In this book, set in Scotland in the 1300’s, there were three glaring mistakes I could not overlook, all within the same chapter.
In one exchange, two of the characters are having a “moment” when she looks at him and says ”This is all wrong.” He tries to reassure her by asking, “There is something here - did you not feel the electricity between us when we touched?“. WHAT??? How the heck did he even know the term electricity at that time? Okay, so I overlooked that with an eye roll and a note in the margin. But then came the very young heroine and her maid. Heroine thinks she’s in love with the stable boy but her father has arranged her marriage to a man of substance. So she writes a note to the stable boy. She orders her tiring woman to take it to the stable boy and tells her that after he pens his response, she is to let no one see it but her. She adds, “Go swiftly - I await his answer.” The maid replies, “I shall move as swiftly as a hummingbird’s wings, m’lady.” That’s when I threw the book.
First of all, the odds of a young woman in the 1300s knowing how to read and write were slim to nil. I mean, it could happen, but it’s certainly not likely as any form of education besides etiquette and running an household was considered unnecessary for females. Second, the odds against a lowly stable boy being able to read said note and write a reply to it are astronomical. And the most glaring mistake was the doggone hummingbird! Hummingbirds only exist in “the New World“ - North, Central, and South America and Mexico. Since this was a full century before Columbus set out to find India and ended up in the New World, how in the heck would anyone in Scotland in the 1300s even know what a hummingbird is??
So I fired off an email to the author asking how she, her proofreaders, her editors, and her manuscript readers missed those mistakes, given her claim to fame as one of the most historically accurate fiction writers of the genre. Thus began an email friendship that led to her suggestion that I write my own novel - she thought I had the talent to do it and promised to read it when it was finished. I’ll probably never get it finished or published, but it’s been fun writing it. I’m already 71 years old, so the odds are not in my favor!
Same here. Some are just fun to imagine and write!
I'm so glad I'm not the only one who does this! I have stories running through my head all day!
Ken is always asking me if I‘m in the car with him or back in Scotland!!
I'd be the one to illustrate a book not write one.
Ok, my bad. I keep tagging the wrong people.I'd be the one to illustrate a book not write one.
